Construction of a new grandstand at the Brown County Fairgrounds looks like a certainty for this fall.

The Brown County Board of Commissioners Tuesday gave its stamp of approval to a plan which will help pay for construction of a $160,000 grandstand over a period of eight years.

LAWRENCE KRAMER, chairman of the Brown County Agricultural Society, and William Huevelmann, secretary,appeared at the county commissioners meeting Tuesday to ask for help.

“We have one of the better fairgrounds in the State of Minnesota,” Kramer said, “but we do need help.”

County board members approved a plan where the agricultural society, which coordinates county fair activity, would seek financing from banks in this county to help pay for the grandstand. The county board then would levy money and pay the agricultural society $20,000 a year for up to eight years. The society has about $26,000 of its own to use for the project.

The past grandstand at the fairgrounds was destroyed in a fire last fall.

WHILE APPROVING the payment plan for a new grandstand, county board members decided that part of the agreement will include ownership transfer of the fairgrounds, now owned by the agricultural society, to the county in two instances:

1) If the agricultural society ever disbands or otherwise goes out of business;

2) If the society decides to change the location of the county fair.

“WE HAVE a time problem,” said Commissioner Denis Warta in pursuing a vote on the request for funds. “We either have to do something now or forget about it.”

Architect Richard Evjen of Richard Evjen Associates, Hudson, Wis., said he is proposing a smaller grandstand in the same spot where the other grandstand burned down.

“We considered a number of locations,” he said. “Now that it has burned down, we want to put it in the most ideal spot possible.”

THE GRANDSTAND will be 240 feet long with bleachers running for 18 rows. Capacity would be for 2,400 persons,300more than the previous grandstand.

Construction is to be of steel and pre-cast concrete. A six-foot high concrete wall will line the front of the stands for protection in case it is ever used for auto car races.

Evjen said the grandstand design is a flexible one. It will be possible to add 10 additional rows of seats later on. It also would be possible to someday install a roof over the grandstand.

Cost of the grandstand if supports are left in the open would total $138,000, Evjen said. The stands could be enclosed and concrete flooring poured under the stands (for storage area) at an additional cost of $12,000, he said.

HUEVELMANN SAID the grandstand definitely could be built in time for this year’s fair “if we can get something going.”He estimated that bids for the construction could be requested by June 1.

“Maybe some of the banks would be willing to come along with us in the area of money,” Huevelmann said, “as long as they know the county will be collecting more money to help us pay for this.”

Brown County will be paying the $20,000 per year in addition to its $13,297 annual payment from tax levy to the agricultural society. The additional amount would work out to about $2 per year in taxes on a house valued at $25,000.

Huevelmann emphasized that grandstand receipts could not pay for the construction.

County fair boards make money, he said, from selling sales areas and exhibition space, plus from selling tickets at the fair gate.

“If you break even on the grandstand,” he said, “you’re very lucky.”