Allen County commissioners Tom Williams and Jim Talkington put off consideration of how they specifically might assist Allen County Fair Board members in making roof repairs and other upgrades to livestock buildings in Riverside Park.
Chairman Jerry Daniels was absent.
Jerry Middendorf, fair board member, gave a run-down of what has transpired in recent months, following a request for a five-year, $150,000 investment in fair board properties. Immediately, and in time for the August 2017 fair, the preference is to replace roofing and perhaps find a way to vent heat that builds up under peaked roofs in the livestock structures.
Repairs aren’t the only thing on board members’ minds. “We’re trying to do more than maintain,” Middendorf said. “We want to esthetically improve the buildings,” which are in the fair board’s care from a 99-year lease negotiated in 1965. Iola owns the park and technically the buildings fair board members constructed years ago.
“We’re all getting older now and we need help” with chores such as roofing and structural repairs, he added.
“The county has a huge role in the fair,” said Williams. Commissioners have been in the habit of providing $11,000 a year to aid in the fair’s conduct, although $5,000 of that annually goes to support 4-H programs.
Middendorf allowed attendance and participation aren’t what they once were — a condition that affects all small county fairs because of a loss of population in rural parts.
In recent years fair leaders have attempted to cope by adding such things as a car show and barbecue, sponsored by Iola Rotary Club, and tweaking other components.
Another recent addition, a mud run at Wide Open Speed Park south of Iola, has proved popular. That event generated $2,500 for the fair board last August.
Talkington suggested the county might provide in-kind assistance, through labor, materials or equipment, in building projects. “I’m not sure it’s our place to give money for a city building,” he said. Also, “we might increase our annual support,” rather than earmark a contribution for building improvements.
Regardless of the outcome, “You’ll find a lot of love up here for you guys,” Talkington told Middendorf.
LARRY WALDEN offered to frame and provide for the county replications of the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Articles of Confederation and Magna Carta, the 1215 English agreement that has been used as a baseline for many documents laying out how people are governed.
