Washington County: Group sees room for growth at fair's site

The organization that runs the Washington County Fair is focusing on far more than sheep and rabbits and cows and quilts.

The Washington County Agricultural Society is trying to lure the Taste of Minnesota and is discussing plans for a park-and-ride and a new access point off Manning Avenue.

It also recently added 23 acres to its 89-acre property in Baytown Township.

"We're going to keep our tradition, but we've opened the fairgrounds up to a lot of new things," said Dan Dolan, president of the agricultural society.

One of the biggest new things could be Taste of Minnesota 2015.

Ag society officials will be at the Baytown Township board meeting Jan. 5 to discuss the possibility. The summer festival, held for the past few years at Harriet Island in St. Paul, was forced to move to the Carver County Fairgrounds in Waconia last year because of Mississippi River flooding.

"They came to us last year, but Washington County couldn't respond quick enough," Dolan said. "We're hoping to get it this year. We have a denser population to draw from."

Taste of Minnesota organizer Linda Maddox said the festival still is exploring venue options for 2015 and hopes to make a final decision within the next few weeks.

The 275-space park-and-ride would be run by Metro Transit, which would like to start a weekday, rush-hour express bus route in the Minnesota 36 corridor to serve eastern Washington County's growing population and traffic from the new St. Croix River bridge. The route would run to downtown Minneapolis.

The area currently is served by an express route between downtown St. Paul and the St. Croix Valley Recreational Center in Stillwater, where there are 100 park-and-ride spots.

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Washington County: Group sees room for growth at fair's site