Master plan will shape future of the North Peace Fall Fair
Residents urged to provide feedback, participate in survey
The North Peace Fall Fair is likely the most well-attended event in the region, with some 10,000 people attending every August. Located 20 minutes north of Fort St. John in North Pine, the 43 acres of Fall Fair grounds have made up the North Peace Regional Park since 1979, although virtually no one refers to the site by its official name. A valued community event for 76 years, the Fall Fair has unfortunately had some difficulties in recent years due to things like changes in the building code, and the deterioration of the older buildings.
Operated by the North Peace Fall Fair Society under an agreement with the Peace River Regional District, until recently the park has hosted not only the annual Fall Fair, but 4-H Achievement Days and countless weddings, reunions, and other gatherings.
For the past year, Area B director Jordan Kealy says he’s been urging the PRRD Board of Directors to start treating the Fall Fair grounds like the regional park that it is.
“They have to make a decision as to where it’s going to go because it’s under the PRRD’s ownership and control,” Kealy said.
To that end, the PRRD has launched a plan to shape the future of the North Peace Regional Park by beginning work to develop a master plan.
“The whole point of doing the engagement is to figure out what the public wants, figure out what the Society and what 4-H wants, and make it so that it’s a working park.”
Area B Director Jordan Kealy
The need to make some kind of plan for the future of the park and the fair became clear in recent years.
In 2021, the Society wanted to upgrade the Adeline Kelly building to create a communal kitchen and add washrooms. Upon investigation by the PRRD’s building department, the regional district and the Fall Fair Society learned that the building wasn’t built to a public occupancy state. It has since been brought up to farm standards for storage, through funding from Area B.
Following the news about the Adeline Kelly Building, the PRRD Board resolved to have all the buildings on the property assessed, and the results were presented to the board in June 2023. The report found that virtually every building needed repairs and upgrades, for safety reasons.
“It’s very difficult when you have some really, really old buildings that don’t adhere to modern codes,” said Kealy.
Many of the buildings on the site were donated by different communities to add to the Fair, such as the Pineview Hall which was donated in 1978 when the Pineview Community Club disbanded. The old log house, which is usually used by the FSJ Country Quilters Guild during the Fall Fair is the oldest building on the property, and possibly the oldest building standing on any fair grounds in British Columbia, having been built in 1928.
The first step in creating a master plan, is public engagement. On its Have Your Say website the PRRD has posted information and links to a survey about the North Peace Regional Park (North Peace Fall Fair grounds). The survey is open from March 14 to April 8.
Kealy and representatives of the North Peace Fall Fair Society urge the public to go to the website and fill out the survey. Past President of the Society, Bruce Christensen along with current Vice President Bonnie Carlson completed the survey last week.
“To me, this is a fact-finding mission,” said Christensen. “Just to see whether it’s being used most beneficially or is there another use possibly for it.”
The questions in the survey ask whether people think the use of the fair grounds was important, do you or have you used the buildings on the site, do people think they could be improved and so on.
“We all know that it could be improved, if we spent some more money out there, wouldn’t say built some new buildings but repaired some of the buildings, updated some of the buildings,” he said.
Because of the age of the facilities, such as the kitchen, they need to be brought up to meet modern codes, something that Christensen says is just the way the world is now.
“Our present kitchen facilities don’t meet all of the standards. It’s going to take some money, to bring our kitchen up to more useable standards, we could use some help from the Regional District for that,” he said.
Upgrading the kitchen facilities would open opportunities for the park to be used year-round.
“By doing these improvements to the buildings, there are times maybe in the wintertime we could have snow golf and there would be somewhere you could warm up and have a hot chocolate and a hot dog,” Christensen said.
In August 2022, Carlson organized a movie in the park, something she would like to be able to do a couple of times a year but was only able to do the one time.
“Over 100 people came to it, and it was free. I organized it so that people who always came to the Fair, I wanted the Fair to give back to the community, and so I put on a free movie night and found a few companies to pay for the firetruck with the big movie screen on it,” she said. “they came and we had a concession. It was the end of the year, so they were getting rid of their concession stuff anyway, so it was free. People brought lawn chairs and blankets and they watched a movie.”
“Before Covid the grounds were rented almost every weekend for a reunion or a wedding. Getting out of Covid, we were able to rent it a couple of times in 2022, and then in 2023 we were not able to rent it out at all. We’re not renting out at all this year,” said Carlson. “So, there’s a lot of money being lost, we’re just losing money each year or even every weekend with people not renting it.”
“We’re still getting requests, almost weekly. But we can’t rent it out without the upgrades,” she said.
Aside from the state of the buildings, the other big issue facing the future of the park is the water supply.
When the Fall Fair was established, the available water was only meant for washing and watering livestock. Since then, the Fair has grown and with the addition of a kitchen and washrooms, the water needs to be potable to meet Northern Health guidelines. Currently the well contains high levels of manganese.
“We’re still getting requests, almost weekly. But we can’t rent it out without the upgrades.”
Fall Fair Society VP Bonnie Carlson
Christensen says that people who live in the area drink the water from the same aquifer, and no one has gotten sick, but it’s a potential liability that the PRRD is responsible for.
“That would be one of our biggest wants, usable, potable water. We have washrooms and we have porta-potties, so we have extra washrooms but the kitchen needs water. Last year we hauled water for people who have kitchens. It worked, but it’s not convenient,” he said.
Kealy says that improving the water supply is part of the master plan. “Northern Health requires that the water be potable, and right now, with the well water, it’s got a higher content of manganese, so it’s currently non-potable,” he said. “We’re going to have to figure out a plan going forward on how to make that work, whether its hauling water or having a treatment system put in place.”
The recent renovation of Blackfoot Regional Park is a good example of what can be done, Kealy said.
“I think the Fall Fair can be a different style of regional park, it has a lot of people go through it for one event, but it can also host weddings, family reunions – when the issues are resolved and there’s a communal building there, it can do dinners, it could be used as a hall to do events. It may not have open gates all the time, but it’s open so that people can book there,” he said.
Kealy added that the PRRD wants the Society to continue to run the park, benefit, and flourish because of it.
“But we also can’t have liabilities and buildings that might not be safe,” he said. “As much as people might want to see it stay the same, the PRRD owns it, and they own the liability. They have to manage that liability and make sure that things are up to spec. That’s what we’re working on right now.”
“I enjoy going to the Fall Fair, I want to make sure it still exists,” Kealy said.
Christensen and Carlson also want to see the Fall Fair continue, and they believe many residents do as well.
“If we can get people to take the survey – there’s space to put comments, I think if people put those extra comments in, if we can get enough people to make comments about the value of the Fall Fair, I can’t see this feasibility study coming up with any other conclusion than the fairgrounds should be used for the Fall Fair,” Christensen said.
Many of the repairs and upgrades that were highlighted in the June 2023 report to the PRRD Board were things that the Society had wanted to do, but were unable to, due to lack of funds and volunteers.
“We have a good bunch of volunteers now, after our fair two years ago we had a meeting about the future of the Fair and we had 118 people turn out. That in itself is a number the regional district should know about,” said Christensen.
“The whole point of doing the engagement is to figure out what the public wants, figure out what the Society and what 4-H wants, and make it so that it’s a working park. We want everybody happy, so whatever we need to fix, we’re going to work on fixing it,” said Kealy.
In its press release, the PRRD says it believes in community input and that it’s committed to a planning process that is transparent, inclusive, and engaging, to “shape a future for the park that honours its rich history and meets the evolving needs of communities in the region.”
You can participate in the engagement process by completing the survey before April 8; provide feedback through one of three Input Workshops – on April 2 from 6 – 7:15 p.m. via video conference, April 3 from 6 – 7:30 p.m. in Dawson Creek, or April 4 from 6 – 7:30 p.m. in Fort St. John; or submit written feedback by April 8 to: Cassandra@expeditionconsulting.ca
“We are having a Fall Fair this year, irregardless of where this feasibility study ends up,” Christensen said. “We want our fairgrounds to continue. We think it’s the right facility for anybody in the North Peace, even the South Peace are welcome to come on up.”