At work bee, volunteers get fair ready for big week

Photos by Tom Rivers

KNOWLESVILLE – Amelia Paratore, 15, of Corfu moves part of a stall for the goat barn on Wednesday evening during a work bee at the Orleans County 4-H Fairgrounds.

Many volunteers and 4-H’ers were at the fairgrounds getting the site ready for next week’s fair which runs from July 21-26. Amelia will be showing goats, poultry and beef cattle at the fair.

The exhibitors for the fair include 204 showing animals, and another 50 are expected to have entries at the Trolley Building.

One of the biggest improvements for the public will be new bathrooms with showers. Jay Silversmith is shown helping spread some stone by the building. Charlie Ricci is doing most of the site work for the project.

Bert Mathes shows the inside of the new building including one of the four new showers. The new bathrooms and showers are handicapped accessible. There will be more space for the users and the bathrooms and showers will be in one building.

There is still some work to get the bathrooms and showers done, with siding, fixtures, sinks and handicapped accessible features all to be added.

“We’ll get it done,” Mathes said. “It’s only Wednesday.”

Camden Price, 12, of Lyndonville checks on a robot that will be on display in the Trolley Building. Camden is part of the Robotics program through the 4-H program. Erik Seielstad, in back, is the mentor for the program that is looking for more members, especially at the high school level.