Goat barn improvements - update from Maruska 11.06.07

Hello all,

I have some updates for you.

The Livestock committee meeting was November 1 at which time I submitted the proposal for the new pens in the goat barn. It was very well received. I had met with Ron Wenger, our fair manager, the day before. He looked everything over and thought it looked good. He was also at the November 1 meeting. Bill Bowers who helps his wife Beth put together the grant proposals also thought it looked good and said he would take it to the finance committee meeting November 6. I asked about attending, in case anyone had any questions. I did find out at the November 1 meeting that plans are drawn up for the new small animal barn and Bill Bowers said they were planning on submitting for a matching grant on that building either in December or April.

I have looked at the plans for a new small animal barn. For those of you who want to keep our own barn, it is inevitable that all 3 barns, goat, rabbit and poultry will be torn down. The new barn is coming it is just a matter of when. To reassure you I have some figures. Currently our pen space and milk room give us 1199 square feet. This is not counting public walking area, just the area our goats use in the barn. The new barn allows for 2000 square feet of pen space alone (not counting walking area) which would be very flexible and we could set up a quiet milking area also. Goats are not near the sheep or poultry and the center of the barn allows for a 40’ X46’ show ring. The new barn will host many other events besides fair, like the blue grass festivals and farmers market, other sheep events and we could do a day long separate goat show maybe in July if we wanted. The city of Lowell would also like to see such a building at the fairgrounds for other events and they are on board to help.

Last night at the finance committee meeting there was some discussion about when to propose for the grant for the new barn. I mentioned that even with the new barn we still would need the new pens and the cost would be higher by about 800.00 as we would need to buy the back ends for the pens. Currently the proposal has the pens mounted on the walls of the current goat barn. They decided to go ahead and submit the proposal which they will write using our figures. They will submit it in December so we should know in January if it is approved. They will submit the new barn for approval in April at the next grant deadline. So if all goes well we will have new pens for Fair 2008, with a new barn coming later, maybe 2009. I would be very surprised if it is approved in May and could be built before Fair 2007.

If anyone has any questions please email me at m_v_huf@att.net.

Thanks,
Maruska

Proposal for goat barn improvements

Below you will find the scanned pages from the proposal submitted by Marsuka to the Livestock Committee on 11.1.07 regarding the proposal for improvements (gates).

This information was also eMAILED - if you did not receive one and would a copy, please let us know.

Note from editor - I apologize for the way this document is uploaded. The program we are using does not allow for uploading PDF files and I am still trying to figure out another way to get this information on the blotspot so it is easily accessible/readable.