Board brings in help for fairgrounds project

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Two new faces with the Stark County Fair Board will help make a proposed fairgrounds west of Dickinson a reality.

The fair board recently hired Gary Satern from Bismarck as a project manager and Dickinson’s Bernie Marsh will fill a board position vacated by Bob Procive.

Satern was hired to speed up planning of the proposed fairgrounds, Chairman Kurt Froelich said.

“My job is to get the thought process working — the layout and the design, attaching dollars and cents to dreams and identifying different sources and uses of money,” Satern said. “It’s up to me to try to inform and to use what experience I have to get a product that the public is willing to invest in.”

Terri Thiel, fair board member, added that while all board members dedicate time to the project, they also have jobs of their own.

“All of us on the board are volunteers and it’s kind of a full-time job to take a project to the next step,” Froelich said.

He and Thiel say Satern was selected because of his vast experience. Satern helped create a museum out of the Billings County Courthouse in Medora and also helped manage economic development in Rugby.

The idea for project management came up after residents gave input during meetings. Froelich said the board wasn’t sure what direction to head after the meetings.

“This is somebody who can come in and kind of take the lead on that stuff,” he said.

He added Satern has “an outside set of eyes to take a look at the report.”

Satern said he can help the board decide which projects to start with.

“You get a lot of very good intentions, but unfortunately you have to look through it and see if the good intentions will cash flow, or if they’ll be supported by the people that say it’s a good idea,” he said.

His next step is to put together a color rendering of a possible fairgrounds layout.

Board members appointed Marsh to the board in October.

“Bernie is a lifelong (Stark County) resident with a vested interest in the community,” Thiel said. “He’s a business man who knows that any type of activities that we have – that relays back to downtown growth.”

Marsh said he joined the board to be more involved in the community and because he wants to see the project become a reality.

“I think if it’s done right it could be a good draw to the community for various activities and various groups that would use it, not only in Stark County, but from surrounding counties,” Marsh said.

In other matters:

- Fair board officers were reelected at Tuesday’s board meeting. Froelich is chairman, Bob Zent is treasurer, Preston Obrigewitsch is secretary, and Kevin Stockert is vice chair.

- On Dec. 2, the board meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

Tags: fairgrounds, nd, stark, county, fair