DELIVER TO: Postal Patron Mechanicsville, VA 23111
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General Election registration deadline set HANOVER -- Monday, Oct. 15, is the deadline to register or make changes to your voter registration in time for the Tuesday, Nov. 6, General Election. The Hanover County Voter Registration and Elections Office reminds you to please
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check your voter registration to make sure it is correct. The Voter Registration and Elections Office will have special Saturday hours on Oct. 27 see ELECTION, pg. 4
Prsrt. Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Mechanicsville, VA Permit No.141
Vol. 35, No. 21 | Richmond Suburban News | September 26, 2018
Agricultural history still focus of State Fair Mechanicsville ‘hotbed of fair-goers’ By Melody Kinser mkinser@mechlocal.com
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ECHANICSVILLE – When the gates open on Friday, Sept. 28, at the State Fair of Virginia, the Virginia Farm Bureau will continue the tradition of emphasizing the commonwealth’s agricultural history, as well as attracting crowds to musical entertainment, competitions, many aspects of agriculture and livestock, and food for all taste buds. Greg Hicks, vice president of Communications for the Virginia Farm Bureau, said this is the seventh year the organization has owned the fair. “It’s the only Farm Bureau in the nation that owns a State Fair.” “We purchased it because the old regime had gone bankrupt,” Hicks said. “We didn’t want to see a void in a very important agricultural
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industry.” The fair, he added, “provides so much education for consumers that we thought it would have been a travesty if the fair hadn’t continued with the agricultural presence.” Last Thursday, Hicks and Kathy Dixon, assistant editor and senior staff writer for the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation’s Communications Department, who serves as spokesperson for the State Fair of Virginia, talked about
Photos courtesy of Kathy Dixon
The State Fair of Virginia offers something for everyone, including entertaining waterfowl, the ducks above are sliding into the water, and goats that compete in livestock shows, at right.
Hanover County’s significance to the event. Based on surveys, Mechanicsville tops the list of communities represented at the fair. Hicks attributes that to the proximity to the Doswell, Caroline
County, location, and the ease in traveling to the site. “Mechanicsville has always supported it,” he said. “All of our surveys and information have shown that this [Mechanicsville] is the hotbed of fair-goers.”
In addition to the strong presence from this area, Hicks said several longtime employees hail from Mechanicsville. The 2018 State Fair of Virginia runs Sept. 28 to Oct. 7 at the Meadow Event see FAIR, pg. 19