FARM-CITY PRO RODEO
Arena
Board of Directors
The Farm-City Pro Rodeo board of directors are:
Continued from Page 4
arena, including upgrades to the
announcer stand’s design. Seat-
ing capacity has been increased
from 5,000 to about 7,500. That
includes adding a third row of
box seats.
There’s no worry about de-
mand for the new seats — Bar-
nett said there are 185 people
on the waiting list for box seats.
The people on the top of the list
were put on there in 1999.
“There’s been always a huge
demand,” he said.
Stock contractors will also
notice a big difference in their
daily routine at Farm-City Pro
Rodeo. In the past they had
to keep their animals at feed-
lots around Hermiston during
the day and then load them into
David Bothum
Seth Shaw
Jon Gill
Jim Michael
trucks to transport to and from
the fairgrounds each evening.
Now all the stock can stay right
on the EOTEC grounds.
“It should save them hours,”
Barnett said of the contractors.
Some parts of the new proj-
ect will likely take some adjust-
ment, even if overall it will have a
very similar feel. Barnett said the
rodeo board is pleased with the
quality of the dirt in the arena, but
it will still take some tinkering to
get just the right balance of firm-
ness and softness, somewhere be-
tween “muddy and dusty.”
“It’s not a perfect science.
Every arena is different,” he said.
Dave Dickmeier
Dennis Barnett
Mike Kay
He said between the paved
parking, rodeo arena lot and
acres of grass that will be used
as overflow parking during fair
and rodeo week, people don’t
need to worry about being able
to find a place to park on the
EOTEC grounds when they
come for the rodeo.
As for the landscaping,
wrought iron and white fences
around the arena, Barnett said the
aesthetics of the arena should be
“breathtaking” for visitors.
Volunteer labor has always
been a vital part of getting the
arena rodeo-ready each year, and
the new arena is no exception.
Small work parties have been
meeting nightly, and on July
29 a hundreds-strong group of
volunteers from The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
were scheduled to descend on
the EOTEC grounds and, among
other things, lay nearly 2 acres
of sod around the rodeo arena.
Barnett said people should ex-
pect to see volunteers working
up until the very night before the
rodeo, including opening day of
the fair.
All that labor combined is
worth about half a million dollars,
Barnett estimated, and he said the
rodeo would not be possible with-
out that kind of commitment from
members of the community.
“Hermiston volunteers have
always been very generous to
this project,” he said.
Contact Jade McDowell at
jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com
or 541-564-4536.
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6 | Farm-City Pro Rodeo 2017
August 2017