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The Mower County Board of Commissioners have approved going forward with erecting a fence around a portion of the Mower County Fairgrounds previously left open.

The fence will be erected this year around Sterling Park, a lightly used area along the northwest corner of the fairgrounds. According to County Administrator Trish Harren Gjersik, the Fair Board came to the county in 2022 requesting the fence for two reasons.

One was to further secure the fairgrounds should a lock down be required for some sort of emergency but also to extend the areas people can park a camper during fair week.

Commissioners approved funding to come from the 2022 fair sales tax revenue fund, which comes from the county, but must be reinvested into the fair.

However, those people owning land along the proposed fence line came to an information meeting on Jan. 16 and expressed several concerns to the fencing that included:

• Inaccessibility to the park;

• Double fencing;

• Limited access to the fairgrounds;

• Construction concerns within the newly fenced in area;

• Additional lighting; and

• Height of the fence.

Landowners were assured that the park would remain available for use throughout the year, except for the week of the fair and two gates would allow entrance to the fair as well as a gate still available for entrance off of 17th Avenue.

Those who already have fencing were averse to having two fences on their property line, though Harren Gjersik said that their fences would likely be taken down when the new fence is put up.

Landowners were also assured that there would be no buildings or campground built on the site, nor are there be any plans to add any more lighting.

The height of the fence will be no shorter than six feet to meet necessary safety specifications, even though landowners preferred a four foot fence.

The property itself was donated to the county through quiet title transfer by the city, which was looking to reduce park acreage in order to focus investment on parks with higher use rate.