Are you ready for the Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair?

Ask that question anytime in our region — except perhaps a week or two after the annual event — and you’ll get a resounding yes.

And no wonder. The Grange Fair is like no other, a bustling tent encampment rich with end-of-summer charm at a Centre Hall fairgrounds that could be called “Grangeville.”

It’s about time, you might say, that the Grange Fair sets up shop on the cover of Users’ Guide, our yearly guide to living in Centre County.

It happens now, the 13th year for Users’ Guide, with the 137th Grange Fair set for Aug. 25-Sept. 1.

It won’t be long before almost 1,000 tents are in place for residence and about 1,500 trailers are in position. An estimated 10,000 people live on the Grange fairgrounds during the event.

Users’ Guide, like the fair itself, is an original — one just a good bit younger than the other. Since its inception, Users’ Guide has been the one resource you need to call Centre County home.

Again this year it’s filled with useful information on your municipalities, your schools, your businesses and more. The centerfold again organizes your year based on major events around the county.

New this year is U.S. Census information, released in 2011, and a report on gas drilling, which is increasingly a part of Centre County life.

The guide, as always, is a staff effort, again coordinated by city editor Teresa Bonner and designed by Laurie Jones. Matt Hymowitz and Alison Boston oversaw the copy editing.

We make every attempt to update the information from year to year, and we ask that if you find anything incomplete or incorrect to tell us immediately. We’ll fix it when this guide gets posted in full to CentreDaily.com, and we’ll have it right for next year.

Many readers keep Users’ Guide around all year for reference, and you’ll find it at events around the county during the year. Visit the CDT tent at the Grange Fair and Users’ Guide will be there for passers-by.

Enjoy this product. And enjoy the Grange Fair when the time comes.

As always, please contact me with concerns you have about anything in the Centre Daily Times or online at CentreDaily.com.

Executive Editor Bob Heisse can be reached at bheisse@centredaily.com or at 231-4640. Read his blog, “Back in Happy Valley,” at CentreDaily.com.