By Lyndsie Ferrell
SOUTH FORK— South Fork Town Board members listened to a presentation from Travis Cross who helped plan the Logger Days event in South Fork this year.
Board members opened the work session and welcomed Cross on Tuesday, Aug. 14 to hear about a proposal to move the event to another location for next year.
Cross handed out a project description and began his presentation by pointing out that the committee that handled the event planning this past summer would like to move the event to a 10-acre plot of land owned by the town out by the Outdoor Depot and South Fork Garden Walk Apartments. “The event has the potential to grow now that a committee has been formed to help plan the event. We really do not want to do any further damage to the baseball field, as that space has the potential for a family fun center,” explained Cross.
Cross pointed out that the Friend of South Fork in conjunction with the town and South Fork Kiwanis have been working to revitalize and use the field for things like Pickle Ball competitions and baseball games. “The area has potential to grow into something great and I think that if we move Logger Days to this other location, both the event and the family fun center would greatly benefit from the move,” stated Cross.
Board members began a discussion about the project and asked Cross for details about the project scope. Cross explained that he needed approval from the board to begin the process of finding out what steps needed to be taken to get power to the site through San Luis Valley Rural Electric. “They will not even come out and look at the site until I have approval from the board to move forward with this. I think the first step would be to get electric to the site and then move forward from there. Having that 10-acre parcel for the event would allow for the committee to plan on growing Logger Days,” said Cross.
Trustee Vicki Phillips was the first to speak on the issue at hand, stating that she was in favor of the idea and would like to see the area cleaned up and transformed into an event arena. “One of the first things I would highly suggest is planting trees for a wind break. If we don’t consider the high winds that would blow through there and get a wind break put in, it very possible the event would fail,” said Phillips.
Mayor Rodney Reed also spoke up, stating that he would be concerned that moving the event outside of town would be an issue and cause it to be less successful. “I would just be concerned that it would actually damage the success by having it so far out of town.”
At the end of the conversation, Reed stated that the board is not able to make any kind of decision during the work session but directed Cross to gather the proper paperwork that needed to be approved by the town and create a more detailed project scope for the board to review. “Once you have all of those things in order, bring them back to the board for approval. In the meantime, the board can do their own research and we can have a more detailed conversation at the next regular board meeting,” finished Reed.