But the worry now is a long-term solution. Ensuring the asparagus festival could still happen at the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds has been nothing but challenging. "So in early February, we had an electrical fire out in one of our transformers and switches, which has down power for majority of our campus," said Daniel Castillo, the CEO of the fairgrounds. A key piece of infrastructure was completely destroyed, leaving most of the 250 acres of grounds without power for months. "All of a sudden, the venue where you were going to have it doesn't have power, and so fairs don't make a lot of money to begin with," said Jeff Berry, program manager for California Construction Authority. "And now the fair here at San Joaquin had to go out and rent generators and diesel, bringing electricians to run all this stuff. So it was a huge expense." On top of these expenses came concerns about future festivals and events at the fairgrounds. "We put in a whole new power supply that you can see behind us, and as soon as PG&E finishes their work, we're going to be able to energize the fair and get them back online, just in time for the asparagus festival," Berry said. But this comes at a cost. A temporary fix has a price tag of $250,000 and a permanent solution is nearly $2.2 million. "Sometimes we can shoulder it, sometimes we can't," Castillo said. "And so this is just one of many issues that we see coming down the pipeline when it comes to the age infrastructure that has been here." For a place that's essential to the community, the fairgrounds is asking for help. "For us to be able to make sure that we are the place to go when a fire occurs, when a flood happens, to be a resiliency center, we need the support of the state, and we're happy with our friends at CFA who've been able to do what they can," Castillo said. "But we would, we would call on the governor's office and everybody to really get behind these fairgrounds because we are here for the state."
Castillo did want to emphasize it's not all doom and gloom. The fairgrounds were recently on the brink of bankruptcy and potential closure. But now, they're in a period of growth thanks to the community, so they're excited to still host events like the asparagus festival.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Electrical fire leaves San Joaquin County Fairgrounds without power, raising concerns for future events )
Also on site :