tmdennie

In 1994-1996 the board of directors worked diligently to secure a lease arrangement with Producer’s Livestock Association. Because of this arrangement, an auction facility became a reality and area farmers once again were able to sell their livestock at a local facility. Also in 1996, the midway was moved from the center of the fair […]

In 1997, the Bill Grey Pavilion was constructed to provide more space and time for the many fair activities. A new horse arena was also built in 1997. Due to deterioration, all hard surfaced roads on the main fair grounds were resurfaced to make them safer for fair goers. As the twentieth century was rapidly

1998 saw the Board looking into acquiring additional land with the hopes of moving the fairgrounds out of the floodplain which has continued to plague the site with flash flooding as often as six times in one month.

Land-seeking efforts continued into 1999 with the purchase of the 158 acre Evans farm which bordered the south side of the existing fairgrounds property. This was made possible through the board’s efforts in obtaining an $84,475.00 capital improvements grant from the Ohio Department of Agriculture and a $1,000,000.00 grant through Ohio FEMA. This brought the

In the fall of 2004, the board began negotiating an agreement with the Ohio Operating Engineers Apprenticeship Training Program to use the fairgrounds site as a training program in exchange for site prep work for the new fair grounds.

The fair’s efforts paid off as a new campground, containing 200 full hook up sites with 50 amp services, was completed in 2004.

The fair’s campgrounds officially opened for business in April of 2005.

An agreement was reached and in the fall of 2005 and 2006, much of the site for the new fair grounds was brought to grade and prepared for the future building site. During this same time, the Buckeye Hills Heavy Equipment Student and Adult programs used this site for training purposes as well.

In the winter of 2015, a firm was contracted to do a feasibility study to determine if it was feasible to relocate the fairgrounds, with facilities to host other events outside of the fair, to the adjacent site owned by the fair board. The result of this study was yes there is a need for

The insurance money from the loss of the Commercial Building was used as matching funds towards this grant and as a result during the summer of 2017 a 100’ x 105’ open air pavilion was constructed on the new site, and during late summer and early fall the local Thomas Do It Center donated and