Union County Fairgrounds denied state construction funds as legislative session ends
By Garrett Christensen on Wednesday, March 13th, 2024 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
UNION COUNTY – The latest Oregon legislative session came to an end last week. Unfortunately for the Union County Fairgrounds, this means yet another session has come and gone without the allocation of long requested state funds.
For those unfamiliar, Union County has been attempting to secure state funding for several years as part of a long-planned wastewater and plumbing expansion for the Union County Fairgrounds. The project plans to construct a new water distribution system on site, the expansion of the septic system to more fairground buildings, the construction of new indoor restroom facilities, and the construction of a sewer lift station to pump wastewater into the City of La Grande’s septic system.
Due to both geographic and environmental factors, mostly stemming from the Fairgrounds proximity to the Grande Ronde River and the need to run the wastewater connection over it, the county has sought state funds to fully cover costs in addition to locally available funds. Last summer, Union County requested $2,250,000 dollars from the state via House Bill 2635, though was denied by the Ways and Means Committee.
During the recent legislative short session, the county instead attempted to include a funding request as part of House Bill 5202, “Relating to state financial administration; and declaring an emergency,” a capital construction bill allocating funds to various construction and infrastructure projects across the state. Though the bill itself passed, Union County’s funding request was not included, despite some alleged enthusiasm for the project among legislatures leading up to the recent session.
This isn’t the end of the project, however. Union County Commissioner Matt Scarfo told Elkhorn Media Group that he will continue to push for the funds in future legislative sessions. Previously, the Union County Fair Board also expressed interest in simply completing the connection to city plumbing services with the already on hand funds and finishing the rest of the project at a later date.
