County receives grant for fairgrounds lights
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald New lights will be installed at the Moses Lake Roundup arena and a portion of the Grant County Fairgrounds, with the help of a state grant.
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Roundup arena will get new lights, and lights will be installed at the south end of Grant County Fairgrounds, thanks in part to a grant of $283,000.
Fairgrounds director Jim McKiernan gave credit to Rep. Tom Dent.
“He was the champion of that grant,” McKiernan said. The money was included in the state’s supplemental capital budget, approved by the Washington Legislature during its 2020 session.
County officials were notified last week they had received the grant. The estimated project cost is about $520,000. County officials have set aside money for the rest of the project, McKiernan said.
The plan is to start the project in the fall and finish by the end of the year.
Current lighting at the rodeo grounds is outdated, McKiernan said, and the south end of the fairgrounds property has no lights at all. The new lights will take advantage of innovations in lighting technology, “the latest and greatest that you can get,” he said.
Along with making the lighting more efficient in the fairgrounds, the project should reduce light pollution outside the fairgrounds.
The arena lights are the first step in a long-term project to upgrade lighting through the entire fairgrounds, McKiernan said.