The meeting began with the approval of the January meeting minutes.
The meeting began with the introduction of a tentative new committee member David Vanderbur pending Decatur County Commissioners approval at the Commissioners meeting on Monday March 3, 2025. David will be replacing Mark Koors on the committee.
Mary Lou Davis, Treasurer updated the committee members that they have $104,000 in the Fairgrounds account with no outstanding bills. The account is overseen, and all deposits and expenses go through the County Auditor’s office.
The committee agreed that they will utilize both WTRE Radio and WRBI Radio for 4-H fair news, radio ads, and category winners in 4-H.
Mark Hirt, Committee Members said that he has the group Fishers of Men interested in performing gospel music at the fair. The committee discussed and Mark is going to work on getting them scheduled.
Christopher Fogle suggested that the committee have an agenda to help keep the meeting on task and to ensure nothing is missed. Christopher also updated the committee letting them know that the fair committee has officially terminated its agreement with the Grandstand App. We will again have Stock the Trailer at the fair where food is collected as part of a competition within our region. All food collected stays local.
Jeremy Pasel updated the committee by letting them know that any contracts that need signed needs to go before the commissioners for their signature. Jeremy went into detail talking about the READI project and what the plans are at the fairgrounds. He said to expect movement to begin soon. They are trying to focus on the community building, grandstand seating, paving the midway loop, new or refurbished horse barn, removing the current farm & home building, increasing the camping spots available first to ensure they have the funding needed before they move on to other parts of the proposed project.
Cody Gault, 4-H Representative asked the committee if families for the horse arena could park on the south side of the arena during their events before 4pm during the fair. Also, they wanted to know if track event traffic would be coming down by the horse area this year. The committee stated that the back gates will be locked and due to this they couldn’t have family park on the southside of the arena and due to gates being locked this will ensure that all track event traffic utilize the new track entrance.
Scott Best, Committee Member spoke about drainage concerns on the track area. He suggested that drainage lines be dug to ensure proper drainage. The committee asked Scott to proceed and get cost estimates for what it would cost to get this done.
David Vanderbur was elected as the Livestock Committee Chair pending approval of his selection at the Commissioners meeting.
The fair is in need of sponsors, and they need to confirm those sponsors by May 1, 2025. Bronze Sponsor $500, Silver Sponsor $2,500, and Gold Sponsor $10,000.
Dave Henderson, County IT Department spoke with the committee about looking at enhancing the technology at the fairgrounds which could include digital signage or screens that could be used to display sponsors, 4-H winners, missing children, and/or severe weather warnings.
The next meeting is scheduled for March 26, 2025, at 6:30 pm.
