The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) offers grants to counties for Subsurface Sewage Treatment System (SSTS) program administration and special projects to improve SSTS compliance rates, and assistance for low-income homeowners with needed SSTS upgrades. The MPCA will determine grant allocations based on applications review; funds will flow to counties through the Board of Water and Soil Resources' Natural Resources Block Grants.
The DNR works with the Minnesota Geological Survey (MGS) to convey valuable geologic and groundwater information and interpretations to government units at all levels, but particularly to local governments, private organizations and citizens. The MGS focuses on geology (Part A reports) and DNR focuses on groundwater (Part B reports). These provide useful information for projects completed by community planners, industry, agriculture, citizens and state agencies related to groundwater.
1) We are intending to book a family comedy/magic performance by the name of "Mixed Nuts". They are based out of St. Paul, Minnesota. , 2) We have a One Room School house that is in need of repair and paint. We are intending to use the remaining money from the legacy grant to fulfill the needed attention to this historical attraction at our Becker County Fair.
The demographic for Benton County needs access to quality arts and culture and historical programming. We will utilize our Activity Area and Cottonwood Stage to introduce some art forms to the visitors of our Benton County Fair programming. Our fair has a high attendance and it provides the perfect opportunity to enhance an introduction to arts through our programming and events.
To contract two entertainers for the free stage at the 2023 Big Stone County Fair. Both entertainers are from Minnesota. The first group will be a musical/comedy duo who will play mostly original musical material with comedy and funny stories mixed in with the songs and between songs. The second entertainer is a Native American stand-up comedian who will tell jokes and stories about his life and comment on current events.
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 need updates to the 4-H exhibit building that is owned by the Agricultural Society, but it is used by the 4-H exhibitors to house their projects during the fair. Fine Arts, Crafts, Photography, Woodworking, Clothing and Textiles, and Quilts are just a few of these project areas. This building sustained some water damage to the interior of the building. The problem has been fixed but the interior plywood and insulation needs to be fixed to safely have these projects, exhibitors and fairgoers inside of this building.
We would like to be able to provide fairgoers a fun experience at seeing horses and ranchers work and run different events with their horses. To see how a blacksmith operates and create iron work. Our magician will create a fun experience for all ages to learn more about agriculture.
We would like to have our local blacksmith's guild members give demonstrations throughout the week of our fair in the blacksmith shop located in our Heritage Village on the fairgrounds. We could get many demonstrators to demonstrate the equipment that we have in our heritage village buildings such as spinning, weaving, quilting, and cooking. We also may have an opportunity to have a threshing demonstration by the local machinery men that meet here in Dakota County. We hope to contract a chainsaw artist and/or the Paul Bunyan Live show to have here the week of the fair.
The Koochiching County Fair will feature two Minnesota-based bands. Performances are open and free to the public. The kids tractor pull will also be featured and free to the participants.
To provide local music artists an opportunity to perform folk, Country, and Rock music at the county fair. Funds will be used to pay for sound, lights, stage equipment, and the artists a modest fee to defray expenses and perform.
We would like to use the Legacy Funds to provide live musical free entertainment during the fair. The Sloughgrass band is a local Minnesota musical group. We would like them to perform two days of the fair. We would also like to do a Landscape Photography "lecture" and show at this years fair featuring Ben Sunne, a local Minnesota photographer who specializes in Landscape Photography. The interest in Landscape Photography has grown over the past few years and this would be a real benefit to the entire community.
Jesse Moffitt Magic and Hypnosis show. Sherwin Linton plays Folk, Country, and Rock music. Larry Olson Band plays Polka. We would like to find a local Spanish band to put under our free tent as well.
Having a chainsaw artist do demonstrations on grounds each day; Building an open sided shelter to protect fairgoers and local performers from the elements as they watch and learn about local cultural heritage such as polka bands, local Native American dances, German bands, Century Farm and senior programs.
This year we are planning to participate in the legacy project by offering some demonstrations to educate the public in farming: a model cow that the public can milk; process of sheep shearing along with use of wool, including a child activity; demonstrations from the local Heritage Club making rope, shelling corn; show a variety of old motors and possible antique machinery items. Glass blower to present two days at our fair and demonstrate the making of fine glass products.
This year the Wilkin County Ag Society will use the legacy grant to hire musical entertainment throughout the duration of the fair. We will also have a magician and balloon artist for two days of the fair. This year we will be having a draft horse pulling demonstration that will include the history of how horse pulls played a role in early county fairs.
This project supports continuing development of the County Groundwater Atlases. The goal is to provide this valuable water and resource management ?information infrastructure? to every county in Minnesota.
This project supports continuing development of the County Groundwater Atlases. The goal is to provide this valuable water and resource management ?information infrastructure? to every county in Minnesota.
We intend to hire internationally renowned potter, Jim Ulmer, to demonstrate and explain the historic nature and science of creating usable ceramics and glazes. We intend to hire Andrew Osten, a local steam engine tractor owner to bring his tractor to the fair for steam engine demonstrations. We intend to hire Jody Marquardt, a locally known, publicized metal worker (blacksmith) who creates historical items out of metal.
The Beltrami County Fair is fortunate to have a variety of venues, including both Home Arts and Heritage Square, to introduce our fairgoers to various cultural, educational, agricultural and historical activities and demonstrations. Our goal is to attract more exhibitors of arts, crafts and science entries with interactive demonstrations from various artists of Minnesota. To accomplish our goal, we will be scheduling two-hour demonstrations in the Home Arts building, plus other activities in our Heritage Square, which is an open air, covered structure with bleachers available for seating.
Benton County is listed as one of the rural counties of Minnesota with lower access to the arts and culture, and has a low number of museums. As a larger event venue that provides access to the community, we utilize a couple of areas in our fairgrounds to provide access to programming that encourages participation and access to those areas. Emotion in Motion is one of the acts that we are looking forward to working with in our activity area. Families and children will enjoy an interactive program that benefits their creative process.
This application is to contract two entertainers for the 2024 Big Stone County Fair. Both entertainers are from Minnesota. The first group will be a Polka Band who will perform Polka music on the Free Stage. The second group will be a band playing a variety of modern to classic music on our free stage.
We will be looking at the way the early pioneers lived, worked and enjoyed themselves in the early days of Minnesota. Repairing a log cabin on the grounds, showing how metal work was done and explaining how early lumberjack camps worked will be a great educational experience. Also the sound of the music of the early descendants of the area will be greatly enjoyed.
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.
We will be applying these funds toward two German heritage musical bands (Chuck Thiel and the Jolly Ramblers and The Wendinger Brothers) and also a 50's & 60's Rock n' Roll show band (Butch Automatic & The Four Speeds featuring The Bingo's).
The Pillager History Center is a building on the county fairgrounds. A history display started to grow there in early 2016, made of paper copies and memorabilia gathered from the community. At the beginning of this history collection, this building was not critter or weather proof. In previous grant cycles the building has had a critter-proofing project, and additional work has been done to further that work. Now, we are requesting funds to allow those 9-year-old paper photos and memorabilia items to be housed in better conditions.
Kipp Davis with be creating a mural on our 4-H building during our county fair - this is a painting of arts and culture of the history of 4-H in our county
The county appears to have a general interest in learning about different types of art as well as music. A local artist will provide glass-blowing demonstrations. Demonstrations will be provided during the fair on glass blowing, a form of art that interests a lot of people. The demonstrations will be provided by the House of Mulciber Mobile Engagement Unit which focuses on education of the art of glass blowing. The Clay County area has a rich heritage in country music along with other music types.
