Returning to his hometown county fair, Secretary of Agriculture Sam Hayes Jr. was definitely in his element Sunday afternoon.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been to nine fairs this week,\u201d Secretary Hayes commented to an audience in front of the new horse barn at the Huntingdon County Fairgrounds. \u201cAnd, as always, it\u2019s good to be home.\u201d Hayes introduced State Fair Queen Jacquie Pratt of Lancaster County, who thanked everyone for their hospitality.
\n\u201cI have heard that the Huntingdon County Fair is the best in the state,\u201d Pratt said. \u201cI do not disagree.\u201d
\nThe dedication of the horse barn, a 50-stall addition to the original J. Fred Campbell Barn, was the official recognition of the people who worked to make the new structure. Hayes called it another \u201cmilestone\u201d at the Huntingdon fairgrounds. The barn was constructed in the spring at a cost of $31,500 by Sunset Construction, a company owned by Jake Peachey of Belleville. The building includes an air conditioned office. Fifty stalls were brought to the fairgrounds, on loan from the Pennsylvania Farm Show.
\n\u201cThe equine industry is important in Pennsylvania,\u201d Hayes said. There are 200,000 horses in the state. \u201cSome people depend on horses to be tractors; some use them for pleasure riding and driving.\u201d Hayes said Pennsylvania provides the best fair fund in America, allocating the resources to county fairs to build such structures as the new barn and for ribbons, trophies and the 4-H youth programs.
\nOne of the three superintendents of the equine department at the fair, Joan Long, said there are 152 horses this year, thanks to the many volunteers who helped prepare the barn and register the exhibitors.
\n\u201cWe got everyone in who wanted to be here,\u201d said Deb Keppler, another superintendent. \u201cWe also drew from Clearfield, Bedford and Mifflin counties. All areas are represented in the county.\u201d
\nRose Waite, the third superintendent, said she was pleased with everyone\u2019s cooperation in decorating their stalls in the new barn.
\nFair board president Jim Davis said his job is to listen to what others are saying, work it out on paper and then follow through. He praised the volunteers who serve as superintendents and fair board members, saying \u201cthey keep me humble.\u201d The barn was a long-standing request from the equine department because of lack of space for all of the exhibitors who wanted to bring their horses to the fair.
\nRep. Larry Sather was also a guest of honor at the dedication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Returning to his hometown county fair, Secretary of Agriculture Sam Hayes Jr. was definitely in his element Sunday afternoon. \u201cI\u2019ve been to nine fairs this week,\u201d Secretary Hayes commented to an audience in front of the new horse barn at the Huntingdon County Fairgrounds. \u201cAnd, as always, it\u2019s good to be home.\u201d Hayes introduced State […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}