Fairgrounds swap meet fundraisers underway in June

The Great Northern Fair Foundation is holding community swap meets through the end of June to help raise funds for upgrades at the fairgrounds.

"It's a community thing, it's for Havre. It's for the fairgrounds," said Ursula Brese, a Great Northern Fair Foundation Board member.

This is the second year the Great Northern Fair Foundation has put on the swap meets with goals to grow the event year after year. The event takes place every Saturday throughout the month of June, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and is held in the north side of the Commercial Building on the fairgrounds.

The goal for this year's swap meet is not only to make money to do some small projects around the grounds but also to purchase another picnic table, Great Northern Fair Foundation treasurer and Fair Board Vice President Chelby Gooch said.

"The swap meets benefit the community by having one come out, make some money, sell all their goods in one location and visit with friends and make new ones," she said. "I like that we get to see and meet community members, and spread the word about the fair foundation."

People interested can contact a fair foundation member to obtain a space to sell items. The charges are $10 per space or $40 for the remaining swap meets. Participants must bring their own table.

People who are interested in selling items and want to make arrangements to do so can contact Ursula Brese at 262-7677.

Items can be donated to the foundation to be sold at the swap meets as long as they are in good shape.

"We are grateful for any amount," Gooch said.

The fair board is in the process of making several improvements on the grounds already and more are in the planning stages.

At a public forum held by the Great Northern Fair Board March 6, the board set priorities for the fairgrounds such as putting up signage, installing air conditioning for the Commercial Building, planting trees at the campgrounds and making technological advances. The tech-related improvements would include providing internet at the 4-H Chuckwagon building, the Commercial Building, the Bigger Better Barn and the campgrounds.

At the fair board's May 21 meeting board members said they had already begun gathering information on some of these projects as well as starting some projects, such as providing internet, air conditioning and making improvements to the campground. The board added that it has also nearly finished remodeling a space in the former H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum on the north side of the fairgrounds into new offices for the fairgrounds.

In the future, the board also plans to demolish the old 4-H bathrooms which have been replaced by the bathrooms in the Chuckwagon building, creating new parking areas, improving the walls of the Bigger Better Barn, adding handicap bathrooms for the Bigger Better Barn, putting a new roof on the horse barn, installing new pavement for the RV park, conducting saline mitigation, improving drainage, installing new grandstands, replacing the Commercial Building and adding a gravel area south of Bigger Better Barn.