Board sends 4-H Chuckwagon lease to county commission

The Great Northern Fair Board at a special meeting Tuesday sent a lease to the Hill County Commission that could lead to a major improvement at the fair.

The board recommended the commission approve a lease negotiated with Hill County 4-H for the space where the 4-H Chuckwagon is at the fairgrounds. This agreement would put building a new Chuckwagon one step closer to reality.

The committee that negotiated the lease with 4-H recommended it be approved for five years — noting that much of that would be taken up with 4-H raising money and actually building the new structure — with the group keeping all of any rental fees it obtains for the new building in that five years.

Committee member Gus Sharp said that once the five years is up, the board can review the lease to see if any change is needed.

Hill County 4-H announced in 2012 it planned to build a new structure, intended as a multi-use facility including new bathrooms and a commercial kitchen. The building that has been used as the 4-H Chuckwagon since at least the 1950s was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps before World War II.

Hill County 4-H already has kitchen equipment to put into a new building. At the start of the year, Town Pump donated items from the previous Wendy’s building, which it bought to convert into a casino.