Union County Fair Board pushes forward with new water and sewer line project.

By Garrett Christensen on Wednesday, August 23rd, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News

UNION COUNTY – Through highwater, or in this case over it, the Union County Fair Board hasn’t given up the push for proper plumbing at the fairgrounds. For those unfamiliar, the Union County Fair Board and the Union County Board of Commissioners have been working toward replacing the Union County Fairgrounds water and septic system for over twenty years.

The project seemed slated to receive additional funding from the Oregon State Legislature via House Bill 2635, which would have provided one million dollars. Unfortunately, House Bill 2635 was killed by the Ways and Means Committee back in June, eliminating what could have been the final significant source of funding needed to cover construction costs.

However, though additional state funding was denied, the project is far from stalled. As described by Union County Fair board member Deb Cornford:

“We’ll just keep working on it. We have a very motivated group that is willing to work on fundraising, work on going after grants or anything we can do to try and make this happen. We’re pretty determined not to give up on it.”

The estimated total project cost, as calculated by Anderson Perry, is $2,856,000. A major portion of the overall expenses come down to complicated geography, namely the Grande Ronde River. While the City of La Grande already has a water line running under the river and connected to a fire hydrant near the grounds, no such connection exists for the sewer system. Due to a combination of environmental concerns, limited space near the grounds, and the sheer cost of building another line under the river, the new sewer connection will need to be run along the 2^nd Street overpass. As further described by Cornford:

“We did some cost comparisons for many different things. We looked into ponds and wetlands, and we just don’t have enough ground space. You’d have to have an operator to take care of it and there’s just a lot of people that kept saying, ‘why don’t you do this? Why don’t you do that?’ The engineer, Mike Lees with Anderson Perry, looked into many of those options and said they were not feasible or there just wasn’t a lot of space or land to do it.”

Broadly, the project has three primary components. These are the installation of a new water distribution system, the expansion of proper septic services to current onsite buildings, the RV parks, and new planned restrooms, and lastly to construct a sewer lift station to pump sewer waste into the La Grande collection system on the south side of I-84.

Currently, the project sits at $1,852,777 in available funding. Sources include:

Local private grant – $75,000
Union County – $250,000
City of La Grande (Gap Funding) – $250,000
State of Oregon County Fairgrounds Capital Improvements – $277,777
State of Oregon Legislative Allocation – $1,000,000

While this is a significant deficit, it’s still planned for construction to begin in October. However, of the project’s three primary goals, not all will be completed during this first wave of work. Cornford best described the current scope of things, stating:

“Right now, with the financing that we currently have, we have a goal to get from city services into the fairground, get the Mount Emily building hooked up to services, get our lift station built and get our caretaker’s house hooked up to the services as well. Then, we’ll see where we stand financially and hopefully, we can start looking at the build of the bathrooms but we’re thinking the actual structure will have to wait until we get more funding.”

Despite setbacks, the board remains confident that the fairgrounds will finally get proper plumbing and septic after over two decades of planning and speculation. As best put by Cornford:

““I feel that the board for the county fairgrounds is very aggressive, and I don’t feel like any of us will stop until it’s complete. We’ll find other fundraisers; we’ll find other ways and we’ll keep going.’

As of the time of writing, the construction contract is out for bid. It’s estimated that the first phase of construction will last from approximately October to Spring 2024. For those interested in supporting the project, monitory donations are accepted year-round. Reach out to Deb Cornford at ucfeventcoordinator@gmail.com or find a direct donation link on the fair board’s website at https://www.unioncountyfair.org/. Opportunities for volunteer work or even material donation may arise once construction gets underway.