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Thursday during the Dallas County Fair, Dallas County Extension celebrated its new building that was made possible with help from the Dallas County Fair Board.

Extension members, fair board members and fair goers gathered at the fairgrounds on Thursday to celebrate the new building with a ribbon cutting and open house event and Fair Board Secretary Sherry James says when the conversation began a few years ago about needing more space, it was important to keep extension on the fairgrounds.

“There were lots of opportunities they could have maybe gone to Waukee or West Des Moines and we really wanted them on campus, on-site with our Dallas County Fair. They have lots of programs and lots of things within this building that help us to achieve what we are trying to do, it’s all about the youth and all about helping people learn and understand.”

Dallas County Extension Regional Director Ann Torbert says the old building had limitations such as there wasn’t enough room to do larger programs among other things and the building improves on that including having more windows and improving storage and updating technology. Torbert says she is thankful for the relationship with the fair board.

“We have a new building, we have a great partnership. We go to each other’s meetings we have great open communication. If we have questions we talk it out and it’s not that way everywhere and it’s something that when you are in a good partnership and relationship you gotta take care of it. It’s not just a here today gone tomorrow thing we are in it for the long haul with them.”

The Dallas County Fair continues with its third day today with plenty of fun activities and a full look at the schedule can be found here.