The fair is a great opportunity for young people to display their skills, whether it’s grooming an animal or baking a pie. Terran Gilbreath of Tenino, a typical 4-H club member, used the fair venue to sell his 206-pound Hampshire pig at the market sale, now in its 21st year.
Half of the money Gilbreath received will go into his savings account with one-quarter going toward feed and the remaining 25 percent to be used as spending money. What a great way to teach young people the values associated with raising a farm animal and saving for the future. The market animal sale typically raises $60,000 to $100,000 and has raised more than $1 million in its history, according to fair manager Rick Storvick. Animal owners keep 97 percent of the funds raised; the market sale committee keeps a small percentage. Animals that are sold include pigs, goats, sheep and steer. The 4-H programs are an important part of the fair experience, but so are the displays, the entertainment, carnival rides and, of course, the food.
While some fairgoers competed for ribbons, others just came to watch the festivities and have an excuse to eat some deep-fried food. From a first-time dog-agility trial to shopping opportunities provided by 110 vendors, chalk up the 2011 Thurston County Fair as a big success.
Thumbs Down: Puyallup Police have slammed the door on the homeless of their community. With its benches and bathroom, the lobby of the Police Department has been an unofficial spot for some of the city’s homeless residents to get out of the elements overnight. The doors were always unlocked – until last week, when department officials began locking the doors after hours.
The change was due in part to deteriorating conditions in the lobby caused by people camping out on the benches and floors, said Capt. Scott Engle. He said it wasn’t uncommon for five to eight people to sleep in the lobby at a time. “The lobby isn’t designed to be a shelter,” he said. We understand that. But use of the lobby as a temporary shelter is symptomatic of an unmet community need.
Paula Anderson, the chairwoman of the Puyallup Homeless Coalition, said there aren’t enough shelter beds in Puyallup to meet the demand. That’s why people turn to the police lobby for a place to stay, she said. “It is unfortunate that the Police Department lobby is (no longer) available,” she said. Use of the police lobby is certainly not a permanent solution, but it served as an indication of the city’s need to step up to the issue and help find additional accommodations for those who have no roof over their heads. City officials must embrace the strategic plan which calls for increasing homelessness-prevention and support services, and instituting incentives to encourage development of more affordable housing.
Thumbs Up: Inmates at Cedar Creek Corrections Center are getting a taste of the “going green” movement – literally. Soon those locked up will dine on freshwater tilapia raised by inmate Ed Stahl as part of the state Department of Corrections’ sustainable prisons program.
Stahl, 57, is raising more than 200 tilapia in a 1,000-gallon tank in Cedar Creek’s greenhouse, the same location where other inmates grow organic vegetables that go straight to the prison’s cafeteria. Water from the fish tank is recycled through pipes into the soil where tomato plants grow and filtered fish waste from the tank is used to fertilize the plants. Superintendent Douglas Cole estimates that 5 percent of the prison’s population works in a sustainability program.
Under another program, inmates raise Oregon spotted frogs, an endangered species, with an eye toward releasing them into the wild once they reach maturity. Officials with The Evergreen State College who assist with the project said the frogs raised by the inmates are larger and have a better survival rate than those raised by zoos that also are participating in the program.
Inmates raise about 10,000 pounds of produce annually, including lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, squash, potatoes and pumpkins that will be harvested this fall, Cole said.
In addition to providing food for the table, the sustainability projects teach inmates skills that they can use to find work once they are released from behind the prison located about three miles from Littlerock in southern Thurston County. Keeping inmates occupied also reduces the risk of violence and reduces operating costs, Cole said.
