New building dedicated in time for Fair

By Matt Echelberry

Inquirer Reporter

A ded­i­ca­tion cer­e­mony for the new multi-purpose live­stock build­ing at the Craw­ford County Fair­grounds was held on July 8. From 1–4 p.m., the pub­lic was invited to check out the new facil­ity and watch the cer­e­mony while enjoy­ing some home­made treats.

The build­ing will house alpacas via brand new pens built by pris­on­ers at the Mar­ion Cor­rec­tional Insti­tu­tion, in addi­tion to hous­ing other live­stock as needed. The large, well-ventilated struc­ture sits in the north­west cor­ner of the Fair­grounds and will be used dur­ing this year’s county fair.

A Build­ing Com­mit­tee of nine indi­vid­u­als worked to plan and coor­di­nate the con­struc­tion project. One of the mem­bers was Mike Hoff­man, who wel­comed the crowd of more than 100 peo­ple and acted as emcee for the cer­e­mony. Other mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee were: Mike Hall, Travis Koschnick, Roger Miller, Ron Ollis, Mark Quinn, Jeff Scheifer, Doug Weise­nauer and Kristy Widman.

Hoff­man explained that when the fair board began rais­ing money for the project two years ago at the 2010 County Fair, $83,000 was raised dur­ing the week. More dona­tions fol­lowed, includ­ing some of the kids giv­ing a por­tion of their earn­ings dur­ing the fair.

Roger Miller, co-chair of the Build­ing Com­mit­tee, said that the cost of the project totaled $450,000; $408,000 was donated as of June 30 with another $13,000 pledged to come in. To make up the dif­fer­ence, sig­nage is cur­rently being sold to be hung on the inte­rior walls of the build­ing. For $250 per year, local busi­nesses or indi­vid­u­als may adver­tise there.

Also, Hoff­man cred­ited the Timken Foun­da­tion and the Bucyrus Area Com­mu­nity Foun­da­tion (BACF) as par­tic­u­larly sig­nif­i­cant donors. Janet Pry from BACF was there to speak for her orga­ni­za­tion, which part­nered with the Com­mit­tee and han­dled the funds for the project. “Out of all the part­ner­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties we’ve had,” Pry said, “this one had the most indi­vid­ual donors we’ve ever seen—about 800.”

Pas­tor Tim­o­thy Comp­ton blessed the build­ing and County Com­mis­sioner Doug Weise­nauer, who also served on the Com­mit­tee, read the Procla­ma­tion that offi­cially added the multi-purpose live­stock build­ing to the Fair­grounds. Sev­eral other speak­ers addressed the crowd, includ­ing 2010 and 2011 Fair King Nick Kalb, 2011 Fair Queen Kait­lyn Lutz, six cur­rent 4-H Club mem­bers; and Dave Williamson, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Craw­ford County Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment Partnership.

But the Sun­day after­noon cer­e­mony was not all talk. Craw­ford Antique Farm Machin­ery pro­vided home­made ice cream at the event. Mem­bers of local 4-H Clubs served it, along with cook­ies and other desserts made by the clubs.

The 2012 Craw­ford County Fair begins on Sun­day, July 15 at 8 a.m. and runs until July 21. Among the var­i­ous activ­i­ties and shows offered through­out the week, a free con­cert (per­formed by the band Savan­nah Jack) will be offered at the grand­stand on July 17 to honor the donors of the new build­ing. It begins at 8 p.m.