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| Fairgrounds facelift |
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| Roundup board, fairgrounds, Crook County Court reach deal to install permanent corrals |
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 | | SHELBY CASE/CENTRAL OREGONIAN | | Riders at this past weekend's Pee Wee Rodeo were the first to use the new timed event facilities at the Crook County Fairgrounds |
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By Kate Wennerstrom
With rodeo season getting under way, the Crooked River Roundup Board of Directors has been busy making more improvements to the arena.
Last year, safety of the riders and animals prompted renovations for the rough stock event facilities. This year, permanent structures needed to be built to enhance the timed event sections.
"The Crook County Fairgrounds was spending a large amount of their time moving everything around and setting it up for each event," Project Manager Doug Smith said. "We worked with the fairgrounds manager and the county court to arrive at a plan that was acceptable for all the users. We designed a set of corrals that was set up in a manner that every user could come in and put on any event they wanted to. It eliminates all of the time that was being spent moving things around. It's permanent. It's safe and it will last for many, many years."
"They used top of the line everything," Crook County High School Rodeo Team Advisor Clint Corey said. "It's just going to make our rodeo run smoother and be better. We really appreciate all the time and effort they've put into making the fairgrounds more user-friendly - it's very nice."
Among the many improvements gracing the fairgrounds this year are new sorting pens and corrals, a roping box and 40 additional horse stalls.
"They didn't have a lot of pens to hold the timed event cattle," Corey said. "Now, since it's all permanent they have more than an efficient amount of pens to hold all the different cows. We have break away roping for the high school kids. We have steer wrestling. We have tie down roping and team roping. So we have to have different pens to keep these cattle in order to run them. All the gate systems, the way they have everything now, you just open a gate and kick some cattle out. You can bring them right around to the chute and we're ready to go. It's just a really nice, clean set-up."
With two years of improvements, the funding for the large projects has come, with help from the community.
"Crook County donated some money to the Roundup to help fund the acquisition of materials. The Crooked River Roundup then added some funds we've generated from our operations to pay for the approximately $55,000 in total expense this year," Smith said. "Then the Roundup donated, or arranged to be donated, all of the labor - we've had considerable help. It's one of those processes that when you get done with it, it's truly the community that got together to make it happen. You feel good about it."
The first rodeo of the year, sponsored by the Central Oregon Pee Wee Rodeo Association, took place this past weekend, with rave reviews heard from the youth and officials.
"We heard a lot of great comments from the Pee Wees last weekend," Smith said. "I'm sure that they're just as excited about having that kind of facility down there as we are."
As the high school rodeo gears up this weekend, visitors from all over Oregon will be checking out the new facilities.
"It's going to be great. We can't wait," Corey said. "The Crook County High School Rodeo Club puts this on every year. The whole Oregon High School Rodeo Association is welcome to come to the rodeo. We have kids from all over Oregon that come to this. We'll have 64 barrel racers. We'll have 50-some pole benders and 27 bull riders. We have some really good entries, so it's going to be a really great rodeo." |
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