A new exhibit hall for the Bannock County Fairgrounds is coming

DOWNEY — Bannock County officials moved dirt on the land that will soon be occupied by a new event building Friday afternoon.

Once complete, this building, called the Exhibit Hall, will serve as the hub for exhibits at the annual Bannock County Fair and will also house community events in Downey year-round. The county plans to have this building complete by this upcoming year’s fair, which will take place in August.

“This building is going to be beautiful,” said Bannock County Fair Board Chairwoman D’Lyn Moser-Evans.

The Exhibit Hall is going to be around 8,500 square feet when completed, featuring a 50-foot by 90-foot open space, where fairgoers will be able to display their arts and crafts at every fair. The building will also have a meeting room, a kitchen, offices, storage rooms and restrooms.

When the room isn’t being used for fair exhibits, people will have the opportunity to rent the open space for any events they would like to hold. Moser-Evans called this a “community resource.”

“(It’s) going to be big enough for their family events, for their work events, for any events that they want to have that they need a larger building for,” Moser-Evans said.

The new building is being funded through a combination of $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and around $700,000 in funds from Bannock County.

This new exhibit hall is replacing a collection of old buildings that have been demolished due to the maintenance and structural issues. One building, that was used for storage, had been broken into and vandalized, said Moser-Evans.

“That’s when we started looking at things and realizing it was really an unsafe place,” Moser-Evans said.

Bannock County’s Director of Facilities Dan Kendall spoke to these issues, stating they would have needed a major investment to bring them up to code.

“We decided to go ahead and take them down,” Kendall said.

Now, the land has been dug out and flattened, and some of the work has been completed digging footings for the new building. Officials are working with a variety of contractors to construct a modern building for Bannock County.

“This building is set up to be up to every life safety code there is. This building has it,” Kendall said. “It’s even gone overboard and beyond, so that it’ll last forever and be safe forever.”

Fairgoers were not able to present their work at the most recent county fair due to the demolition of the old buildings, so Moser-Evans is especially excited for everyone come and have that opportunity in the new building.

“We’re really looking forward to this being finished this year, so people can just come and bring their stuff and have a place,” Moser-Evans said.

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