Improvements are in store for those who attend fair

The fair begins Monday and will run seven days.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- A new sign for the Columbiana County Fair is, in part, a return to its roots.
A sign saying "Columbiana County Fair" some 40 feet wide is expected to be erected at the main entrance to the fairgrounds as the 161st county fair gets under way.
The fair begins Monday and runs through Aug. 6.
The sign was made by PWS Welding and Manufacturing in East Liverpool.
Fair Board President Owen Unkefer said the board approached the company about making the sign for an estimated price of $3,000. The company ultimately agreed to donate the sign, he said.
It will replace a similar sign that was once above the entrance. That sign simply read "County Fair" as shown in a photograph in The Vindicator on Oct. 14, 1945. The long-gone sign was topped with a small triangle. The caption of the photo mentioned the fair had celebrated its 100th anniversary that September.
But the sign is just one of many improvements made at the fairgrounds this year.
The grandstand is believed to date to the mid-1800s, and fair officials have long discussed a major overhaul with a potentially hefty price. One figure bandied about this year was $1 million for the project, but Unkefer said that was incorrect.
Improvements
Fair workers found this year that ground had washed from underneath part of the grandstand. Unkefer said that area has already been refilled with concrete. A new, flat area in the grandstand is being added for people in wheelchairs.
Another improvement made this year by the fair board was running a new water line to the barn area of the approximately 140-acre fair grounds.
The board has also created a new picnic area named the White Oak Picnic Area after the trees that shade the area.
The use of some buildings has changed. The former commercial building is now the Arts and Crafts and Hay and Grain Building. The commercial displays will be in the former arts and crafts and hay and grain buildings.
The fair is visited every year by about 30,000 paying customers, according to Treasurer Tom Rudebock. That helps to explain why the fair gets new exhibitors all the time.
Rudebock said the fair's database had the names of 150 exhibitors, "and that will get bigger," he said.
Another new feature this year are the tickets. A $30 pass purchased through Monday will get a person into the fair every day. Daily admission will be $7 and will include rides.
The fair will offer its traditional entertainment. There will be car demolition derbies on Wednesday and Sunday, Motocross on Thursday and a truck and tractor pull on Friday and Saturday. The Midway Stage will feature bands every evening.
wilkinson@vindy.com