new fair site promises to provide not only a

bigger, better Fayette County Fair in 1999, but

also more money for local charities and a

facility that Fayette organizations can use for a

variety of functions.

In

fact, members of the Fayette County Kiwanis Club,

which has sponsored the fair for 48 years, hope

the new facility will help pour a half million

dollars a year into Fayette charities and

community service.

"It

just keeps blossoming into something we never

thought it would be," said Wayne Snead,

president of the Kiwanis Club, which is putting

on its 48th fair this year on a new 62-acre site

on Goza Road at Lisbon Road, just off Ga. Highway

85.

While

construction workers are racing to meet a

promised Sept. 1 completion date for a 20,000-sq.

ft. events building at the new site, members of

the civic club are working to plan this year's

fair with more events, exhibits and rides, plus

three extra days of family-oriented activities.

Once

the fair is over, they'll turn their attention to

planning future facilities at the fairgrounds so

the entire community can benefit, said Snead.

"We

can't have a facility like this that's just going

to sit down there to have a nine-day fair,"

he said. "We want this facility to be

something for the whole community to use."

Meanwhile,

Snead said he hopes those who attend this year's

fair will understand that the facility is a work

in progress. "We're sort of on the fast

track to get it up and running for the

fair."

The

new fairgrounds won't be completely finished for

this year's fair, but the facility will be

completely fenced and lighted, and there will be

grass parking and security. Indoor bathrooms

won't be ready, so portable toilets will have to

do.

In

future years, Kiwanians hope to double the size

of the exhibit hall (it is designed for

expansion), and build two or three stock barns, a

horse arena for horse shows, concerts and other

activities, and possibly a stage or amphitheater.

"We're

gathering information from different clubs and

interest groups in the county to see which would

be most beneficial to the citizens of Fayette

County," said A. J. VanLandingham, assistant

chairman for the fair.

"Any

building we put in has got to be

multi-functional," said Wayne Snead.

"As

soon as the fair is over," he added,

"we go back into the construction phase for

awhile and talk about how we want to manage it

and who's going to manage it."

Even

though it will have about a million dollars

invested in the new fairgrounds by the time the

1999 fair kicks off Sept. 30, VanLandingham said,

the club plans to honor all of its current

commitments to fund charitable work in Fayette.

"We will not take anything from our

commitment as far as charity work now," he

said.

"And

when we are fully developed," he added,

"there's going to be a lot more money used

for charity in Fayette."

Club

members are hoping the facility will eventually

help increase funding for Kiwanis beneficiaries

like the youth Protection Home, the Council on

Battered Women, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts by

more than ten-fold, from the current level of

around $35,000 to a half million dollars or more.

Ideas

have been coming through club members and the

community so fast the 53-member volunteer group

can barely assimilate them, VanLandingham said.

"It's

almost overwhelming," he said.

But

to make the fairgrounds into the facility it

needs to be, this year's fair will have to be

bigger, and each year's event will have to grow

bigger than the last year's, said Snead.

"We've

got to make the fair grow so we'll have the money

to take care of the facility... finish it, expand

it, make it what this community deserves,"

he said.

To

reserve booth space for this year's fair, or to

offer ideas on the future of the fairground phone

770-719-3530.

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