To conserve and stabilize five historic murals significant to German-American history in New Ulm Turner Hall, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
With the ML 2015 appropriation The Conservation Partners Legacy (CPL) Grant Program awarded 70 grants, 22 of these grants were the metropolitan area. Over 24,000 acres were enhanced, 2,500 acres were restored, and 386 acres protected through these 70 projects. Thirty-eight counties had CPL projects completed in them through 47 unique organizations. The average project for the ML 2015 grants was $96,000, with few exceptions most projects were completed on time and many were under budget.
The Conservation Partners Legacy Grant Program, managed by the Department of Natural Resources, provided 56 competitive matching grants to non-profit organizations and governments, appropriating all the available ML12 funds.
We are planning to bring several musical groups to the fair that will highlight the cultural heritage of our county. We are rich in German and European culture in our area and will be bringing several polka bands in for afternoon entertainment. We will also be including a chainsaw artist this year and are very excited for the new demonstrations that he will be bringing to the grounds. We will bring a blacksmith to the fair as well for demonstrations, something that we have been working to include at our fair for some time.
We plan to rearrange the set-up of our commercial building. This building houses all of our open class exhibitis including the Minnesota Master Gardener group, Minnesota Gladiolus Society displays, all open class creative arts exhibits as well as all open class horticulture and food exhibits. By arranging in a new way we will be able to have a space open to bring in a series of indviduals and groups for creative arts, horticulture and food demonstrations throughout the fair.