Club members and volunteers have been busy this week gettingready for the annual Brookhaven Exchange Club Fair.

The fair kicks off Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and will go throughAug. 2, with the fair closed on Sunday. Nightly hours are 6:30 toaround 10, said Danny Knight, this year’s fair chairman.

“Hopefully, we’ll have everything running,” Knight said as clubmembers pulled ride equipment from storage and worked to get gamebooths looking good earlier this week.

While new attractions are limited this year, Knight said thefair continues to be good, clean and safe fun for people of allages. Law enforcement officials maintain a visible presence duringthe fair.

In the area of rides, Knight said club officials installed a newmotor on the swing ride. He promised it would be “top notch” thisyear.

“We’ve had some problems with it in the past,” Knight said.

Unfortunately, ride tickets will be costly a little more.Tickets will now be $1 instead of 50 cents as in years past.

“Everything’s going up,” Knight said of the increase. “It justtakes more for upkeep of the park.”

In addition to maintenance, Knight also mentioned insurance andgarbage disposal costs.

“It wasn’t any way to keep the tickets 50 cents any more,”Knight said.

Small rides will be one ticket while larger rides will take twotickets.

Small rides are the mini Ferris wheel, merry go round, kiddiecars and airplanes. Larger rides are the swings, roller coaster,Frolic, Tilt-A-Whirl and large Ferris Wheel.

Proceeds from the annual fair go toward park upkeep, a $4,000scholarship for a city or county school student, the nationalExchange Club goal of prevention of child abuse and other projects.All funds stay in Lincoln County.

In addition to club activities, Knight said a childidentification booth will be set up the last two nights of the fairto take pictures and fingerprints of area children.

“The Junior Auxiliary is going to run that,” Knight said.

Knight was looking forward to a great fair and good weather forthe week.

“I think we’re going to have it, and we’re hoping for coolweather,” Knight said.