I have a few things to contribute to the Fiesta Days discussion. An editorial (Herald, Aug. 8) floated the idea of combining Fiesta Days with the La Plata County Fair.

Has anyone from the Herald staff visited what is left of our fairgrounds? The parking and access are horrible. I know that during Fiesta there are not enough available stalls for participants’ horses. The stock pens for the rodeo are a disgrace.

On Thursday, we had to offload our cattle onto another producer’s semi-trailer for the entire day (with no water) as there were no available pens.

There are four rodeo performances as well as a full day of team roping and an additional afternoon and evening of barrel racing. The queen horseback competition also takes up most of a day. So I’m not sure how scheduling one Fiesta Day at the beginning of the fair would work. Hopefully, there will be some fair participants writing in and letting everyone know how crowded and inadequate the facilities are during that week.

Times have changed, and I understand that these events have become participant- rather than spectator-driven. While ranchers and farmers were the ones “tending cattle, cutting hay or irrigating, building school systems, lobbying for highway money,” they also lobbied for and got our fairgrounds built. We, their descendants, were the ones who dropped the ball and let our elected officials tear down the historic grandstands and stall row and let the facilities get squeezed farther and farther to the back. It’s a disgrace, but we let it happen.

Fiesta Days is fine. It’s our La Plata County Fairgrounds that are “limping along, at best.”

Kim Buffalo

Grandview