Jefferson County Fair Kicks Off As Town’s Bridges Reopen

By Alex Lundy, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jul. 10–JEFFERSON — After almost a month of bridge closings and road detours, residents of Jefferson County replaced sandbags with hay bales, traded damaged basements for dusty barns, and instead of wet trash on every corner, found fried delicacies.

The opening Wednesday of the Jefferson County Fair marked a restart of summer for attendees, many who have lived in a city split in half by floods since mid-June.

“Everybody is tired of sandbagging and mud,” said Tom Bean, a member of the Jefferson Agri-Business Club. “It’s a relief for the community to get away, and it’s not going to cost them a lot. They can see everything from autos to animals to lions.”

With the reopening of two Jefferson bridges, the city finally became whole again. The south side was completely shut off by the bridge closings, and residents had to travel 20 miles for a normally 10-block trip.

But the only body of water people will find at the county fair is a small trout pond.

Fair Secretary Gail Zastrow reported no damage or excess water on the fairgrounds.

“We’re getting there,” Zastrow said of the county’s recovery. “We survived.”

Bean, who supervises the Agri-Business Club’s food stand, said some local suppliers were hit hard by June’s rain, but that won’t affect the club’s booth, which raises about a third of the club’s annual fund-raising efforts.

“We’ve been here nine years, so everybody knows our reputation as far as good food and everything,” he said. “But you couldn’t get anywhere.”

Zastrow said the event will help Jefferson residents feel some comfort this summer.

“If we didn’t have a fair, it would be difficult for a lot of people,” she said.

—–

To see more of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jsonline.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.