August 21, 2025 Minutes
Weld County Extension Advisory Council Minutes
August 21, 2025
IN ATTENDANCE:
Cheryl Aragon-Fair
Kali Benson-Extension Director
Amy Cooksey
Mikayla-Weld County Fair Update
Pat Kindvall
Jill Matlock
Will Nelson
Cindy Nosko
Carol Pitre
Commissioner Kevin Ross
Gary Schaneman
Sean Short
Lori Stevens
ABSENT:
Rick Bowen
Dr. Darin Lickfeldt
Erin Mathews
Will began the meeting at noon. The Advisory Board went around and introduced themselves and said what their most interesting thing that happened this summer. This is the last meeting for Cindy Nosko as she is retiring. Her last day in the office is September 12th.
Sean motioned that the June minutes be approved, and Gary seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Kali Benson gave a director’s report. Having an amazing time getting to know the staff very well. Been meeting also with other partner groups like West Greeley Conservation District and the Island Grove group, trying to figure who all the players are there. Made it out to the White Plumb Farm location to see how that was coming along. Visited with the different Master Gardeners; we have a great group of volunteers coming in.
Cindy is going to be leaving us which is good for her but not for us. We wish her the best. Now learning the HR process of hiring now. In addition to that, we also had our horticulture coordinator, Nicole, leave about mid-summer, a little bit after I started so we’ll be refilling that position as well. Jen, the Horticulture Specialist has done a great job of taking over what Nicole had been doing.
Obviously, we’re going to have an update on the Weld County Fair. It’s the magnitude that Weld County brings to the Fair and all the support from the community. Was really impressed with the open class exhibits and all the livestock shows. It shows the quality of 4-H is incredible.
After all that, just trying to see what coming up on the horizon as I’m dealing more with the Island Grove group and see the different ideas, and needs for this facility to understand the history and process on any future building renovations or goals. Been speaking with Commissioner Ross about that a little bit as far as what do we have right now and when do we keep adding to it.
Commissioner Ross gave the Commissioner’s report. We as a board are committed to the new Justice Center, Administration and VA downtown. So how that will lay out is that the block the Methodist Church is, that will become the new Justice Center, then where the Centennial Building is, the brick building that surrounds the courthouse, we will be leveling that after the Justice Center is built and that is where the DA will be housed which works into the master facilities plan. Nost sure about the old courthouse at this time. Some of that will be reserved historically and we’ll figure that how to continue to utilize and such. We had to redo the districting and got done with that on the 8th of August, similar to what we had, and the state seems to be happier with our process.
It's budget time so we’re knee deep in that right now, trying to keep things flat as possible.
A lot of stuff going here at the state level. The state kicked off a special session today, and we’re expecting a lot of shenanigans out of it. There’s a constitutional portion in the State constitution that says the State can give counties as we’re technically and arm of the State, because we carry out everything that they say needs to be done. But they can’t give us unfunded liabilities, meaning the can’t say, you have to go implement this program and then not give us the money to do so. They’ve been getting bad at that part. They’re coming up with all these programs that the State says counties have to go implement and not putting the money behind them, and it’s starting to put a strain on the counties involved trying to figure out where they’re going to pull the money from. So, we’re wrestling with that and we’re working with some other counties and we’re going to send some letters down to the State and governor, hopefully they’ll listen to us.
It’s great to have Kali on, she is doing an excellent job and I’m enjoying working with her. Kudos on the Fair, it was outstanding. The board is very happy with how it went this year.
Mikayla Gabel gave an update on the Weld County Fair and Cheryl Aragon was present for the presentation. Finishing up my second fair which has been my biggest accomplishment. Mikayla grew up in Weld showing with 4-H and the Fair, so she has come full circle in being the Fair Coordinator.
This was the 107th year of the County Fair. We kicked off the first “live” streaming of all the livestock shows as we want to see what kind of feedback we would receive, and we got some amazing feedback as you can see from the ringside live stream. The goat show had 9678 views, sheep show had 9777 views, cattle show had 6898 views, and the swine show had 9948 views. In total, there were 40,903 views and 49,309 total impressions.
The sheep show had more views than the Ohio State Fair, so just putting that into perspective, the caliber of livestock and what we bring to the table is better than most state fairs.
Our entries were up by about 300 from last year. We had 5300 entries, 936 exhibitors, 152 divisions and 2898 classes to the County Fair.
We kicked off some more special events this year. We opened with a Team Roping event on July 26th. There were approximately 250 teams that participated, and we ended the Fair with a Truck and Tractor Pull on August 1st. There were a little over 1800 tickets sold and 50 truck/tractors that pulled.
The Livestock Sale was even better this year, and it brought in $1,641,945.
The Fair had a rough competition this year for Royalty. There were 7 contestants. This years’ court is Queen – Addison Tellez, and Attendants – Dakota Bernard and Tessa Goodvin.
The Farm Bureau gave out integrity awards this year, and the nominees were Maddie Culbertson, Ena Gibson, Rayna Hill, Mesa Arnold and Alex Raff.
We had a lot more vendors this year. We welcomed a Children’s Entrepreneurship on Saturday and Sunday that brought in 90 young entrepreneurs selling their wares. It was a great turnout for vendors this year. There were 30 food vendors, 22 retail vendors and 4 informational vendors making a total of 56 vendors and more than we had last year.
This year the Weld County Fair surpassed their $75,000 sponsorship mark with collecting over $100,000 from in-kind and monetary sponsorships for the Fair. From UTV’s to sand for the cattle ring and everything in between, we are surrounded by amazing partners that help make the fair what it is today.
We had an amazing 107th Fair and are already gearing up for the 108th Weld County Fair. It’s bee an incredible celebration of community, tradition and achievement! The smiles on faces, laughter and the shared experience captured the essence of our Fair.
With no further business or new business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:00 p.m.
The next Council meeting will be on October 16th, at noon at the Extension Office. Larry Hooker will be giving an update on the Livestock Program.