Architect discusses plans for fair-ground

By Ben Austin
Staff Writer
    An annual banquet was held last Wednesday in honor of the local volunteers who put forth their time and effort to make the Houlton Agricultural Fair the success that it is.
Pioneer Times photo/Ben Austin
PICTURE PERFECT — Paul Cleary holds up a large framed photo, donated by Leigh Cummings, before calling out the lucky winning ticket number.
    The dinner, put on by the fair association, was held at the exhibition hall in Community Park. Following a delicious meal, Paul Cleary took the stage to address the volunteers who helped make the fair so successful.
    After giving away numerous door prizes, which were donated by various stores and residents, the presentation turned from appreciation of the past volunteers to future plans for the location of the fair.
    Plans have been set to create a brand new fair-ground just outside Houlton’s town line. Plans similar to these have been floating around for a while, but until recently nothing has been definite.
    "There is so much we want to do, that we can not do here in town, that we will be able to do once we get out to the new fair-grounds,” stated Paul Cleary to the group of volunteers.
Pioneer Times photo/Ben Austin
DISCUSSES — Dave Forkner, of HOK Smith Forkner, gives a slide show presentation of his companies past work and future plans in Houlton in front of a group of fair volunteers and Houlton police.
    Following Cleary's address, Dave Forkner, of HOK Smith Forkner, moved front and center to talk about his company's plans for the new fair-ground. HOK has been involved in the building of 180 fair-grounds across North America, Australia and The United Kingdom, and is also known around the world for its work on stadiums.
    Most recently the architectural design company has worked on the renovations of the extremely impressive Astrodome in Houston, Texas.
    Forkner went on to recognize that the community will need a fairground that will represent it, and pressed that although his company had worked on much bigger projects, they would like to get right down into the details of the small town fair-ground.
    ‘We need to get as much input as we can, because this fairground needs to represent the face of this community now and this community in the future,” said Forkner.