Houghton County Fair Association to add addition to fairgrounds exhibit building

HANCOCK, Mich. (WLUC) - The Houghton County Fair is one of the county’s most anticipated summer events.

The Houghton County Fair Association (HCFA) puts together the fair annually at the county fairgrounds in Hancock. A number of attractions for the fair are held in the association’s exhibit building. An addition is now being planned for that building.

“It’s going to be an addition 16 feet wide by 58 feet long,” said HCFA Board Member Richard Freeman. “There will be a permanent ticket booth, similar to the one that’s sitting there now, but it will be actually built into the addition.”

The addition would also include two handicap-accessible bathrooms, a mechanics room and a large fair operations center.

Freeman says this project has been part of the association’s five-year plan. The addition started off just as the ticket booth, but the idea continued to grow to include the other features. This was partially done with the possibility of renting out the building during the off-season.

According to Freeman, most of the addition’s roughly $220,000 cost will be covered through various sources.

“We initially applied for a grant from the Michigan Department of Agriculture,” continued Freeman. “We did receive a $100,000 grant, and we have a match of $50,000 towards that, and then we also had an anonymous donor donate $58,000 dollars toward the project.

The association received word of the grant’s acquisition two weeks ago. However, construction will not kick off for a while.

“This project should be done, I believe, by October 2024,” said HCFA Office Manager Carol Saari.

Freeman says that they are holding off on bidding out the project until next year. He also noted there is the possibility of fundraising events in the future to raise additional funds for the project.

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