Fair backs off farmland sale

PALMER — The Alaska State Fair Board decided this afternoon not to sell 40 acres of farmland during a meeting at the fairgrounds.

Board member Bruce Bush said, "We heard the message," from people who had protested the sale, "and we listened."

In fact, Bush said, an additional 10 acres will also be preserved.

The board also created an agricultural sub-committee of sorts that will be made up of 12 people with farming backgrounds, Bush said.

He said NIT, the company that wants to build a trade school campus on fair grounds, "has been good enough to work with us," on another location, Bush said, but he couldn't elaborate further.

The Frontiersman will have more on this story Sunday.