Thank the “Nifty Fifty” for keeping Prairie Meadows afloat long enough to become a money-maker.
From
November 1991 through May 1993, when Prairie Meadows came out of
Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the track ran on a shoestring budget. It was kept
open by the Nifty Fifty, a skeleton crew of about 50 workers that did
two or three jobs a day.
“We would come in and clean the
place in the morning and do whatever it took to keep the place open
during the day and into the evening,” former general manager Tom Timmons
said. “Every charity in Polk County and whoever is getting money from
Prairie Meadows really owes those people a big debt, a thank you. If it
wasn’t for them keeping it open, that place might be just like the
(closed) Waterloo dog track.”
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