MISQUAH — The Pine County Fair board meets tonight at 7 at the grounds office to take the 2026 fair apart. Chair Verna Tho has put the ice machine first on the agenda, in letters she describes as “as large as the form allows.”

The machine failed Thursday at noon during the week’s hottest afternoon and was worked around by borrowing from the Legion, the school and the Northern Tap’s walk-in. Tho reports the borrowing worked, that she does not intend to do it again, and that the question before the board is repair, replacement or a standing arrangement with somebody who owns a truck.

Also on the agenda: the shade structure behind the exhibit halls, which the board intends to keep and which this newspaper established was also tried in 1951 and dismantled in 1952 for reasons the minutes decline to record; grandstand roof repair; and a letter, received August 23, requesting that the Forest Club’s live-animal building be given a larger space next year “for reasons.”

Attendance was 11,400, the best since 2016. The board will also set the 2027 dates, which by long practice are the third full week of August and which are announced at this meeting every year to no surprise whatsoever.