Published: August 03, 2008 09:29 pm      

COUNTY FAIR: Event closes on pretty good note

The Niagara County Fair, threatened by iffy weather Wednesday through Saturday, escaped with mostly fair weather this week and enjoyed good numbers at the gate.

The annual five-day affair, which maintains its hometown, wholesome atmosphere, closed Sunday with Lydia Shafer of Middleport, Matthew Sweeney of Appleton and Afton Grousse named 4-H Royalty.

“We think it went very, very well,” said Janet Schultz, the 4-H chairman of the board. “We think the numbers are going to be the same as the last couple of years with 20,000 to 25,000 paid admissions.”

Accounting will take about a month.

“The weather has been great,” Schultz said. “Actually, we had one day it poured for a few minutes and that was it. And, the first day it just rained a little bit. The clouds are nice a puffy in a blue sky. It’s been a great fair.”

The common response from merchants was, “pretty good.”

The 4-H Milk Bar was selling out of some of its dairy products by 3 p.m. on Sunday. “It’s been pretty good,” said Linda Conlin of Lockport, who has been volunteering at the fair since she was 9. “All the profits for the 4-H members go for their programs and projects.”

June Brent of Cheektowaga had a pretty good response making waterproofing connections for Everydry and it was “not bad” for North Tonawanda’s Jim Manth of Waild Construction who was selling Guttertopper.

It was Manth’s 10th year at the fair. “The people who run it are very friendly,” he said. “It’s very nice to work with these people.”

Gideon International gave away about 1,200 pocket-sized New Testaments. The Gideon Bible goes to 186 countries in 82 languages.

Jordan Donner, who celebrated her 11th birthday Sunday, made the backward flip look easy on the bungee jump. She takes dance classes and gymnastics. Her mother, Tina Baker of Barker was springing up and down but didn’t do the flip.

“It’s a lot harder than it looks,” she said. “I like it. I come every year. We see the horses first, than we do the rides. It’s a tradition.”

The fair has a way attracting folks from out of town. Dave and Jackie Plewinski of Akron brought Morgan, 4 and Carly, 2, on Saturday. The 4-year-old girl gleefully led the family into the dairy building.

“She’s so excited,” Dave said. “All day she’s been talking about coming to the fair. She wants to ride the pony, see the pigs and cows. ... It’s a little smaller than the Erie County Fair and it’s nicer for the kids.”

Al Dell’Aria of New Haven was a bit off-target at the National Guard football toss, but she laughed it off. Maddy Myers of Ransomville brought her friend who moved from Connecticut last year.

“It took a couple months to get used to. It’s really country up here,” said Al who is from a metro area outside New York City. “It’s like a down-scale of Connecticut fairs. It’s cool.”

Maddy, who has been riding horses for eight years, was in competition on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday with her quarter horse Miguel.

Frank and Lori Jurecki of Lewiston bought $15 day passes for Haden, 10, and Brooke, 9. It’s a bargain considering the $4 fee to ride the Wind Glide and the children wanted to do it more than once.

Children lay flat on their bellies and are strapped in. The Wind Glide from Midway Rides of Utica glides up and down and around.

“Star,” a pony with “glass eyes,” provides $5 real rides. For $10, children could ride on the paint horse, get a Polaroid picture and a hat.

“It’s fun to work with them,” said Sara Huttenmaier. “I have two horses of my own in Pendleton. Lots of paints have blue eyes. A lot of the time they’re called glass eyes. Usually a horse has brown eyes.”

Niagara County Federation of Conservation Clubs gave folks a chance to shoot and air rifles and $2 for 12 pops. The money goes to conservation club youth activities.

“A lot of them that are good, especially the first time shooters.” said Larry Koch of Appleton. “You can explain to them. They understand and they do what you tell them. They become pretty good shots.”

Meanwhile, 4-H children of Sanborn were wheeling homemade cherry and apple pies around the fairgrounds at $8 a whole pie and $2 a slice. Justin Daigler, 8, and Clayton Rowlands 8, helped with the cooking. They took the bowl, dumped the apples, mixed the pies together and put the crumb topping on.

Mom Helen Rowlands supervised and Cameron Rowlands, 6, helped with sales.

Technology has changed for fair-goers. After Zachary Winker, 4, finished his riding adventure, his mom took a picture with the phone and sent it by e-mail. “It’s nice,” Tina Winker said. “It’s more for my son. He likes the rides and games. They need more rides for younger kids.”

Grandmother Candice Bouley, who motored around the grounds on a electric scooter, said, “I wish they had more arts and crafts and the prices were a little lower in the games for my grandson. He loves all that stuff.”

Schultz said, “We have ideas for more family activities for the fair. If they can bear with us, they’re going to see a growing fair in the next couple years.”

Schultz thanked the fair-goers for their patience Friday night when there was had free admission. “The traffic was a little jammed up for an hour or so and we got that mess taken care of. They’ve been patient with our new traffic flow. It seems to be working. There are a few glitches, we admit to that, but we think we can fix that for next year.”