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Notes, observations, commentary, news and photos from our communities. I'm the general manager for the YourHub.com operation, the citizen journalism site for the Ventura County Star. And I'm glad you are here, too. My wife Joanna and I live in Simi Valley with our two sons, Matt and Joey. We've been in Ventura County for more than two decades and feel privileged to be here. Please comment on this blog and post your news and musings, too. See you around the county!

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Fair transforms Seaside Park every year

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Contributed by: Michael Hoffman on 7/31/2007

A quick look at Seaside Park on the day before the Ventura County Fair opens gives you a sense of the work behind the county's largest single event.

The transformation of the park that houses off-track betting, pet shows and swap meets into the fair is organized magic. Scores of volunteers who have Fair in the blood descend on the site to sort through submissions, arrange materials, help guide installations and tend to plants and animals.

Inside the Agriculture Building Tuesday afternoon, several groups of volunteers are straightening produce boxes for display and shifting hay bales into position. The Ventura County Star has its display inside the ag building. And this year, several members of the YourHub.com team will be there on afternoons during the course of the event.

Let me start here with a disclaimer. I love the Ventura County Fair. Have ever since I first covered one as a reporter 20 years ago for the Ventura Star-Free Press. Something about the event is embedded in my DNA.

My mother, who turned 80 this year, won several ribbons for her baked goods entered in the Fresno County Fair. When I was a boy, some of my Four-H Club projects won prizes in that fair, too. The bits of a rolling mechanic's lamp I built are still hanging around my mother's home.

But back to the Ventura fairgrounds. On the park's Main Street, vendors clean their windows, bring in the last inventory and test their electric connections. Cars and trucks clog the street where starting Wednesday only pedestrians and electric carts will circulate.

In the carnival area, heavy metal music plays low. At the bumper car concession, a worker has three vehicles on their sides while he checks the undercarriage. In a game booth, a woman uses an powerdrill to attach vinyl bunting to wooden blocks. A man sits behind the fun house's false front eating a sandwich.

Before I walked onto the grounds Tuesday, I paused to read a sign. Another man walking in starts a conversation. We talk about the changes that take place every year.

"This is a great fair, the best that I work," he said.

[If you want to visit with members of the YourHub.com staff, or if you have questions about the Star in general, please drop by the Star's display in the Agricultural Building between 2 and 5 p.m. on fair days. We hope to see you there. I will be there from 1 to 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 10, and Saturday, Aug. 11.]

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