CUMMING — The covered arena at the Cumming Fairgrounds will be getting a fresh look.

A repainting project was approved at Cumming City Council during its meeting Tuesday night. Dave Horton, fairgrounds administrator, said the work would be one of the first touch-ups to the arena since it opened.

“This is the painting of the arena steel structure, the skeletal structure of the building,” Horton said. “It was last painted when it was built in 2001.”

The arena is home to many events throughout the year, including rodeos, Forsyth Central High School’s graduation and concerts during the annual Cumming Country Fair and Festival.

Horton said the structure is beginning to show signs of rust, and that the new paint is expected to last twice as long as the existing coat.

Painting will be conducted with rollers and brushes rather than spraying, and the will remain the same gray color.

In response to a question from Mayor H. Ford Gravitt, Horton did not have a clear timeline for the painting, but said the work would occur before the fair in October.

“This is one of those things that, depending on how many people they use, it could take two weeks or a month,” he said. “I want to try and have it done hopefully in the month of April to be ready for [Central’s] graduation.

The project will be handled by Stancil and Associates, the low bidder on the project, for $62,885.