Event Center holds ribbon cutting, open house

The new-as-it-can-get Caribou County Event Center at the County Fairgrounds in Grace held its ribbon cutting last week, giving the public a chance to tour the facility and see what the community space is like.  

The project, which has been in the making for around seven years, was largely funded through ARPA and PILT funds, rather than by creating a new taxing district.

The Event Center is designed as a community resource, which will now permanently house the county’s Ag Extension Office, Fair board, and County emergency vehicle bays.  It also boasts a large event space, with the capacity to hold hundreds of visitors. 

The Open House was a festive night, which gave people an early chance to wander through the space and see how the building that had been taking shape over the last year plus had finally all come together.  

The night was kicked off with Serendipity, the Grace High School Choir group, who honored the attendees with a fantastic rendition of the National Anthem.  A video of the performance can be found on our Facebook page, by searching “Idaho Enterprise Caribou County.”

Following the performance, Board of County Commissioners Chair Mark Mathews and County Commissioner Bryce Somsen cut the ribbon at the entrance, officially opening the building.  The two gave some brief remarks.

Chairman Mathews recounted the history of the project: “On behalf of the commissioners and the other elected officials from the county I’d to welcome everybody here and say a few things about this event center.  It started out about seven years ago, when were going to build a pole barn to replace the big top tent that they put up during the fair.  That seemed like it was going to be expensive for the benefit from it.  So we tried to get a grant to do something like this event center, and that fell through.  And then COVID hit, and the government started shoveling money our way.  It seemed like every commission meeting, somebody was there looking to get a piece of that pie.  And they came out with ARPA money [American Rescue Plan Act], and there was about two million dollars set aside.  The ARPA funds didn’t have as many restrictions, and for years we’ve been leasing space from the city of Grace for the emergency service vehicles in this part of the county, and we thought that if we added the emergency service vehicles to the building that we’d be able to utilize the funds and end up where we could say that we accomplished something with those funds.  At the same time, the state was pushing counties to get rid of some of their surplus funds.”

Mathews continued, “We’re pretty blessed to live in Caribou County.  The county tries to hold a year’s budget in reserve, and the state came out and said that was too much and we needed to reduce those surplus accounts.  We had money in the PILT funds [Payment in Lieu of Taxes—funds from state land in the county that can’t generate revenue], and in an effort to comply with the state, we put the two funds together and this is what we have to show for it.”

“The Extension office will be moving here, and we hope the community will grab hold and put it to use and it will be something that benefits the community for years to come.  With that said, Bryce is going to say a blessing on the food, and we’re going to eat.”

And then both of those things happened. 

Afterward, the commissioners took their places on the server side of the line and dished out food to the guests, along with members of the clerk’s office.  It was an early chance to use the kitchen, which is situated between the event area and the smaller conference room area of the building.

As the event continued, the hosts of the Small Town Ruckus Podcast—Tracy Davis, Kaid Panek, and Casey Batterton—entertained the crowd with Caribou County trivia and prizes, and music, as part of a live broadcast. Davis mentioned some of the potential uses for the space (which is available to the public for booking at excellent rates), and noted that the commissioners are excited for as many people to use the space as possible.  “That’s what’s super cool—we can put things on, and come in and use the place respectful, and there will be a lot of things you can do here.  I think young Casey will have to manage us on that, Kaid,” Davis joked.  

“It will allow us to hold programs and activities that would have been impossible without it,” Extension Educator Justin Hatch said.  “It’ll completely change everything we do, I think.  Give us a lot more opportunities.  Provide more opportunities to kids and the community that just weren’t possible before.”

The fact that the Event Center is right next to the Fairgrounds was also a major plus, as Hatch and 4-H’s Rachel Hamilton pointed out.  Many of the 4-H participants come from the Bancroft and Grace side of the county, and the location makes for an easier visit for them, and of course, is next door to the perfect facilities to train and practice on.

The Extension office suite also contains classrooms, equipment areas, and at least one room that may be used for Fair board meetings or other county needs, though at press time the final allocation of space hadn’t been set.    

A lobby area works as a smaller event room, next to an corridor containing restrooms.  The other side of the building, which was not open during the tour, contains the emergency vehicle bays.        

While COVID seems like the distant past, the funding streams for ARPA and other offshoots of stimulus were only four years ago at their outset.  Different entities spent the funds in different ways, but in the most prudent cases (because it basically had to be accepted or it would be repurposed elsewhere) it was used for infrastructure and longterm, material assets. The event center had been something of an out of reach idea without these funds available.  

Despite the headaches of change orders and changes in federal government requirements during the process, the end result is a spectacular multi-use space that should stand for many, many years as a hub for the county as a whole.

In a related note, last week the power was off across all of Oneida County for more than twelve hours over night.  The fully powered shelter for warmth and medical assistance?  That’s right—Oneida County’s Event Center, completed around five years ago.