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McCook Gazette

Fair board awards contract for new arena

Thursday, November 6, 2014

McCOOK, Neb. -- The Red Willow County, Nebraska, fair board of directors Wednesday evening accepted a $571,000 bid from J.L. Construction of McCook to build a third arena on the fairgrounds in McCook.

Joe Leamon's construction company also built the original Kiplinger Arena in 2003 and the second arena, the "Trudy Arena," in 2011.

Fair board members will now take their recommendation to accept Leamon's bid to the county commissioners.

The new warm-up arena and multi-purpose building, to be called the "Alice Kiplinger Building," will cost $571,000. It will not be built, operated or maintained with tax money, but by the Tom and Alice Kiplinger Endowment Fund created by Tom Kiplinger in early 2013 to operate, maintain and promote the Kiplinger complex into perpetuity. The fund was financed by the sale of agricultural land that Tom Kiplinger donated to the county and that the county sold in late 2013. Kiplinger has funded the original Kiplinger Arena and the Trudy Arena and their assorted stalls, pens and livestock handling facilities.

With events scheduled almost every weekend throughout the year, the Kiplinger Arena complex is self-supporting and does not require a tax levy or tax money for its operations, staffing, maintenance or promotion.

Some of the initial dirt work for the new arena has been done by fair grounds maintenance crews, and construction of the new building will start in late winter or early spring, when the frost goes out of the ground.

It is to be completed by June, in time for the county fair in July.

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  • Thanks again to Tom Kiplinger!

    -- Posted by dennis on Thu, Nov 6, 2014, at 3:34 PM

  • Thanks Tom for depriving us of a race track. Absolutly no reason why that building couldn't have been elsewhere. I guess it's all about your name being the lone attraction there.

    -- Posted by rmartne on Thu, Nov 6, 2014, at 4:35 PM

  • rmarne..... really? Is was clear that no one was getting a purse by racing at the McCook Speedway, by extension, no one would race.... by further extension.... no races would be watched..... hence, WHO exactly was responsible for removal of the races? I don't think Tom is the one to blame here..... perhaps I missed something?

    -- Posted by Nick Mercy on Thu, Nov 6, 2014, at 7:34 PM

  • Nick, you are exactly correct.

    -- Posted by dennis on Fri, Nov 7, 2014, at 7:57 AM

  • Thanks for another generous donation Mr. Kiplinger, the location can be blamed on the "Hand and Solicited Picked Fair Board members" But it is great to see another venue being installed at the fair grounds. However I do question the location and would be curious to know if the racers and a possibly new promoter were aware of this meeting to vote? I would like to see the County Commissioners to hold a meeting in an evening quorum with the racers,fans and county residents before they stamp a final approval!

    -- Posted by Shock on Fri, Nov 7, 2014, at 4:41 PM

  • Great post by Shock. Thank you Mr. Kiplinger for another huge donation to our fairgrounds but the location for your building is absolutely horrible! Yes, the race track has struggled the past few years but so have all of them in this area. Renting the track to a promoter without the finances or decision making ability to run a business has made our fairgrounds look really bad the last year. A very limited schedule or only a fair race for a few years would have been the best thing to help keep this track alive. Destroying something that has been a fixture to this town for a warm-up arena is pathetic! Very bad decision Red Willow County Fair Board!

    -- Posted by Spirit of Radio on Sat, Nov 8, 2014, at 12:26 PM

  • Finally mostly the out of town race track noise makers finally get shut down by the Fair Board about 15 years to late and no help from city council with no backbone to racers noise pollution. Time to enjoy summer Friday nights again in the backyard or ball fields.

    -- Posted by Corn Whisperer on Wed, Nov 12, 2014, at 2:46 PM
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