PUTNAM COUNTY, OH (WLIO) - The Putnam County Fair publicly unveiled its new event center at Monday's opening ceremonies.
Thanks to funding awarded by the Putnam County Commissioners from the American Rescue Plan Act, the fairgrounds have been able to rebuild and combine their former junior fair and merchants buildings into one new event center. The new structure, which was completed in just ten months, brings major quality-of-life improvements for fairgoers, exhibitors, and vendors, and it creates a new way to bring even more money into the fairgrounds.
"What this is going to do for us, it's going to give us a building to use year-round. Before, all we had was winter storage. We couldn't really do anything for it. We now have the ability to have meetings, trainings, weddings. We do currently have quite a few weddings booked for the next year or two," explained Dale Schulte, president of the Putnam County Agricultural Society.
With this new event center, the 4-H projects outside of raising livestock are now housed in an upgraded and air-conditioned location, so more visitors will be able to come to check out their hard work. This year, you'll find projects on anything from the weather to trapping pest animals.
"If you drive on the road and there's patted-down stones, it looks like, but instead of it being on the road, it would be in a river or a creek, and it'd be a big ditch inside of a river. Or you can look and see if there's a hole inside of the bank, and that can also be a sign of a Muskrat Den," said Landon Warnecke, Kalida Go-Getters and 1st place winning project "Trapping Muskrats."
Representatives from state government offices and elected officials like Bob Latta, Rob McColley, and Roy Klopfenstein also came out to congratulate the fairgrounds on their latest addition.
"Certainly the revenue is important, but I also think it's really important that it's a gathering place. It's a gathering place for families, for weddings, for reunions, for businesses to hold events here, and it's large enough that people can come to this community to have their function," said Roy Klopfenstein, Ohio House of Representatives (District 82-R).
After this year's fair, over $100,000 will be invested to replace old roofs on two livestock barns. For more on the Putnam County Fair, visit https://putnamcountyfair.com/.
