FAIRGROUNDS ALMOST BACK TO NORMAL

An estimated 99,412 people enjoyed this year's SEMO District Fair at Arena Park. With 78 fair volunteers pulling up the last stakes and rolling up the last tents Sunday, it was time to think of restoring the park.

Dan Muser, director of the Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Department, said he is optimistic that this year's Fair did little damage to the grassy areas and ball parks of Arena Park.

"When the Fair leaves the Fair people do a pretty good job of cleaning up the litter," Muser said. "If the grounds are real wet it roughs things up a little bit, but it's been so dry this year I don't think it will be a real problem."

Muser said it usually takes about a week to get the park back to the shape it was in before the Fair rolled through.

"The ground can take quite a bit of punishment and come through it better than you would think," he said. "It's tough on the ball fields, and it takes time to get those back into shape."

Parks department crews will focus initially on making sure the A.C. Brase Arena Building is cleaned out and ready for Monday's Kiwanis bingo gathering. After that crews will be aerating the fields, filling holes where needed and maybe dropping some grass seeds along the way.

The park has about two weeks to get the ball fields into shape before a co-ed softball league starts. Occasionally after a Fair there might be a water leak to fix or some other small mechanical chore, but overall the Fair personnel do a good job in clearing the area.

Muser said the determining factor will be how wet the grounds are. Sunday's rain might not have much of an impact since the ground had been so dry for so long before the rain, he said.

"How bad it is depends a lot on how wet it is. If the ground is wet then you are going to get a lot of ruts and holes," he said. "This year I'm assuming it'll go alright."

Pete Poe, SEMO District Fair organizer, said "a big group of strong young men" put the Fair cleanup ahead of schedule.

"We're about 95 percent done," Poe said. "We all got wet but everyone stayed with it; no one went home early."

Backhoes were hard at work Sunday clearing out the hay and manure from the livestock exhibits. Crews were taking down tents, collecting garbage bags and sweeping up litter. Poe said the carnival is gone, the tents will be gone by today, all the fences are down, the streets have been cleaned, and the bleachers have been tidied up and put back where they needed to be.

"We made a big dent in it today," he said. He said all of the volunteers at the park today were treated to lunch by the Fair board.