SUPERIOR – In their weekly meeting Friday, the Mineral County Commissioners discussed issues related to parking at the County Fair and Lion’s Club Rodeo as well as possible technical upgrades for the Mineral County Library.

The issue of parking was raised by Glenn Koepke, representing the Trinity Lutheran Church. Koepke presented a letter to the commissioners which was also sent to the Sheriff’s office, the Town of Superior, the fair board and the Lion’s Club. He said these groups all had an interest in the County Fair and the rodeo.

Koepke wanted to raise awareness of the fact that, during fairs and rodeos, parking through the area of Sixth Avenue becomes incredibly congested. With trailers that Koepke described as “getting bigger every year” safety concerns have been raised.

“There are actually semi tractors pulling these huge stock trailers,” said Koepke. “It’s getting pretty industrial over there.”

He explained the trailers make the road extremely narrow and block the visibility of drivers and pedestrians. Koepke also predicted the congestion would cause problems for response crews in the event of a fire or medical emergency.

According to Koepke, the Lutheran Church had problems with fair-goers disregarding the blocked off grounds of the church during the events. He related that in recent years the church roped off their yard to avoid vehicles and horses on the lawn. Occasionally, however, people have cut the ropes and driven over the lawn.

“I think what happened in this case was, it was such a bottleneck they just figured they’d cut the ropes and drive across the church yard because it was the most direct way to get out of there,” Koepke said.

Koepke wanted to see better parking arrangements for the fair and rodeo. It was suggested someone step forward to manage parking during the events. This person’s job would be to make sure people know where they are not allowed to be and generally police the situation to avoid overcrowding.

“[It would be nice] to have a parking team,” said Koepke. “Just a couple guys that can run around and help with that.”

Laurie Johnston, commissioner of central Mineral County, agreed there was a problem. Johnston also said there were few options for what could be done as a solution. The commissioners felt the Town of Superior, Lion’s Club and fair board would be responsible for finding a solution.

The other big item addressed at the meeting was related to a proposed upgrade of the wiring in the library building. The proposal came from DIS Technologies in Billings.

The proposed upgrade was estimated to cost between $8,000 and $10,000. Duane Simons, commissioner for western Mineral County, made a motion to approve the library’s upgrade using $10,000 from the General Fund for Building Maintenance or Data Processing.