Sioux Center, Iowa — The Sioux County Youth Fair is going to move in the next few years, and a location has been tentatively selected.
Sioux County Fair Board President Craig De Haan says that the property where the fair has been for quite some time is actually owned by the City of Sioux Center, and he says times are changing, and using the property for the fairgrounds may not be the best use of the property anymore.
(As above: When you take a look at the highest and best use of a property that you know in town, close to that, obviously in the real recent past we have the high school going up on the old racetrack area. So highest and best use of that property probably isn’t for the fairground. I think they have plans for it. I’m not real sure what plans they exactly have. But I know they had mentioned Open Space Park is kind of getting tight and needing more space for that. So that’s a possibility. And of course, Dordt is not far from there. So I’m sure there’s a combination use there as well.)
De Haan tells us that the first steps have been made toward moving the fair north of Sioux Center.
(as above:There’s no real obviously hard concrete plans drawn up yet. But we have decided as a fair board to partner with Dordt out at their Ag Stewardship Center. It’s still central Sioux County. It’s a wonderful place to move to it’s got a lot of area that if we would grow we have some opportunity there and they’re looking at putting buildings up regardless and this way we could join together and they can utilize the buildings the rest of the year, you know, typically the fair only needs the facilities for a week to two weeks out of a year and this way they get more use with Dordt filling them.)
De Haan says the fair won’t be moving for the next couple of years at least, and will be held as usual at the fairgrounds in eastern Sioux Center for the time being.
(as above: We’re not feeling pressure. And I just want to obviously put that out there that some people think well, we’re not going to have a fair because it’s getting taken away. It really isn’t. They’re being patient with us so that we all feel good about where we’re going to move to and that that we have a facility to go to.)
He says the fair board is excited to work together with Dordt University in this endeavor.
