Fair board holds special meeting

The Hardin County Agricultural Society met Monday, April 15th, 2026 for a Special Board meeting with directors: Corey Ledley, Rob Wilson, Dan Beale, Steve Harpster, Charlie McCullough, Andrew Scharf, Austin Eibling, Jack McBride, Jake McFadden, Grant Mizek, Tyler Overly, Christa Rarey, PJ Noascono and Kirk Cameron. Guests present were: Judi Cronley, Randy Clark, Sherri Beale, Matt Jennings, Joe Sherman, and Michelle Laubis.

Jake McFadden, Board President, called the meeting to order.

A meeting was called to discuss the Tornado Damage to the Fairground and future building projects.

Joe Sherman, Hardin County Commissioner, started the meeting by thanking Mid Ohio Energy for helping set electric poles this week. He stated the goal of the Commissioners is to get everything weather proofed at this time. That includes having a roof installed over the Youth and Ag Center, having a roof installed over the East end of the Machinery Building (where vendors have booths), replacing the roof over the Beef restroom, and fixing the Cattlemen’s Restaurant.

He stated that the Commissioner’s are in the early stages of how they would like the Machinery Bldg. to look. There have been discussions with local people about this project. They would like the rest of the Machinery Building (the 4-H and middle part of the building) to come down and a Cultural Arts Center built on the site. It would be a size of 300×120, 36,000square feet. Possibly an additional 74,000 square feed added on for offices, etc. The Beef restroom will need to be torn down to make the new building fit. The new building would have restrooms & showers on each end. He’s requested the fairboard come up with a plan on how they would like the interior to look, so plans can be made. Tearing down the building would happen the day after the fair ends. The possibility of tearing down the Youth and Ag. Center for a parking lot is also in the talks

Plans for building 2 new animal barns/buildings are still being planned to start right after the 2026 fair ends. That is a separate project.

Discussion was then held on how to house the vendors that were in the Machinery Building. Possible solutions are to ask vendors to only have 1 booth this year, making room for other vendors to move into those spots, using some of the 4-H booth space that is not needed by 4-H clubs for vendor spots, along with adding a row of vendor booths down the middle of the Youth and Ag Center.

Jack McBride and Austin Eibling moved to adjourn the meeting, 2nd by Andrew Scharf, motion carried.