Group looks to bring rodeo back to Malta arena

At the final Malta City Council Meeting for August, Malta's Jerey McEwen approached the Council about forming a new Rodeo Committee that would take over the rodeo arena at Malta's Trafton Park.

At the first Malta City Council Meeting of August, Malta John Mayor Demarais said that he hoped someone would step up and take over the rodeo arena at Trafton as it was in "terrible shape," "hadn't been used for many years" and had cost the City of Malta close to $11,000 in weed spray and labor in the last year.

During the public comment portion of last week's meeting, McEwen said he and six others are working on forming a committee to take the arena out of the City of Malta's hands and turn it back into what it used to and was meant to be.

"I want to form a rodeo committee that will bring two DRCA Rodeos and an NRA Rodeo to Malta," he said.

McEwen told the Council that if the committee was approved by the City of Malta, their first order of business would be to make sure the rodeo arena bleachers are sound and safe for the public, recounting a time in the past when he caught a young man by his shirt collar a split-second before the youth nearly fell through a busted plank in the seating area.

Malta Public Works Director Jim Truelove said that he had recently been to the arena and confirmed the bleachers could use some work. McEwen said that the arena would get cleaned up this fall and the rodeo events would follow.

"That is the best news I have heard in a long time," Mayor Demarais said.

The Malta City Council approved McEwen's request to be added to the September 10 meetings agenda and Councilman David Rummel said that McEwen and the rodeo committee would "be a blessing" for the area.

"I want to hold some kid's rodeos," McEwen added. "Some of the kids around here aren't basketball players. They aren't football players. They are cowboys...and this would be monumental for some of these kids out here."

In other City Council happens, Director Truelove said that crosswalks near Malta schools had been repainted prior to the beginning of classes starting, and stated that a new jungle gym play area had been installed at Hillcrest Park.

The next Malta City Council Meeting is slated to begin at 5 p.m. at the Malta City Hall on Tuesday, September 10.