‘Harvesting Memories’ theme of Fair

By Eve­lyn Long -

Ron Williams, direc­tor with the Mor­row County Agri­cul­tural Soci­ety, invites the pub­lic to attend the 162nd Mor­row County Fair which begins August 27 and runs through Sep­tem­ber 3.

A direc­tor from Wash­ing­ton Town­ship for 25 years, Williams describes the fair as “rural Amer­ica.” “It’s down to earth with whom I call the com­mon folk –plain peo­ple attend­ing — the older peo­ple love com­ing to the fair — see­ing peo­ple they don’t see that often,” said Williams. He also agrees with Mary Weiler.

Weiler, sec­re­tary with the board for the past six years, has been asso­ci­ated with the fair for the past 17 years and mar­ried Tim Weiler, a board mem­ber, 16 years ago. “The fair is a great thing for the kids,” she said. “We all do this to make sure the kids get to do their projects.”

Dan Rogers, board pres­i­dent and an at-large direc­tor for the past 20 years, said he and other board mem­bers work hard to keep expenses down when repairs or improve­ments are made on the grounds. This year, the old hog barn, “done in by the last flood,” was razed. All of that work stayed local, said Rogers, with credit to Mau­rice Hoot­man who hauled it away to its recy­cling at Mid-State Waste (Mark Phillips).

Rogers said the draft horse barn area bat­tered by water from under­ground leaks for many years, was repaired when new water lines, and an ele­vated hydrant replaced the old gal­va­nized steel pipes. The cost of $5300 was min­i­mal thanks to the work of J R Lev­er­ing and Hoot­man, said Rogers, whom he names as “unsung heroes,” because of the hours they deliver to the fairgrounds.

Rogers added the elec­tric on the mid­way was updated and dam­aged seats in the grand­stand were repaired and replaced by board mem­bers. A new con­crete pad was poured at the beef barn and the scales moved so only the beef cat­tle can be weighed there free­ing up the orig­i­nal weigh­ing pad and scale for other animals.

Rogers also praised Con­sol­i­dated Elec­tric and Young Elec­tric as ‘god­sends’ for always being on call to help.

Weiler said new car­pet has been placed on the floor of the fair board office and paint applied to the walls. Land­scap­ing has been updated; “there is always some­thing going on,” she said with a smile.

Weiler noted that dur­ing har­ness rac­ing on Mon­day and Tues­day evenings at 5:30 pm there will be prizes awarded to spec­ta­tors in the grand­stand. This is in charge of the speed committee.

She noted there new finan­cial sup­port­ers of the fair this year: J R Equip­ment of Delaware; Crop Pro­duc­tion Ser­vice, Edi­son; The Glean­ers who are spon­sor­ing a tent; Dr. Stephen Ritz, DDS; Matt Har­ris land­scap­ing and Card­ing­ton Yatuka.

Weiler’s job is a year round process. Reports from the cur­rent fair must be com­pleted by Novem­ber, ready for the Decem­ber meet­ing of the board and sent to the Ohio Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture by Jan­u­ary, 2013. Work begins in solic­it­ing ads for the next year’s fair book in Novem­ber and Decem­ber and con­ces­sion­aires are con­tacted for next year’s fair in April, 2013.

Entries for this year’s fair are down by 54, she said, but there are 21 more exhibitors.

There are also 149 more chick­ens entered. All of the camp­sites are filled.

She noted the sea­son passes are now $25. Mem­ber­ship passes, which allow the holder to vote in the annual elec­tion, remain at $3. This year for the first time, a Code of Con­duct is required to be signed by all who sign a form that involves par­tic­i­pa­tion in the fair such as a par­ent, a par­tic­i­pant, agent, rep­re­sen­ta­tive and/or exhibitor or attendee.

Grand mar­shals at this year’s parade will be Glade Bachelder, a board mem­ber for 27 years and Sam Miller, a board mem­ber for 15 years, both of whom are retired from the board. Weiler praises her staff for the great assis­tance they give her. Jean Staiger, Brid­get Adams and Mcken­zie Cox will gra­ciously answer ques­tions and help wher­ever they can.

Senior Day at the fair when all senior cit­i­zens 62 and above are admit­ted free from 7 am to 4 pm, will be observed on Tues­day, August 28. Vet­er­ans Day at the fair will be Sun­day, Sep­tem­ber 2, when vet­er­ans with proper mil­i­tary ID will be admit­ted free from 7 am to 4 pm. They will also be hon­ored dur­ing the grand­stand pro­gram at noon.

A high­light of the fair will be the 2012 Amer­i­can Moto­sports Motocross Championship

Round 14 at the Mor­row County Fair on Wednes­day, August 29. The prac­tice will begin at 6 pm and the race occurs at 7:30 pm.

Weiler noted an addi­tion to the Sun­day night grand­stand attrac­tion when two wheel drive pickup truck fig­ure eight rac­ing will take place along with school bus rac­ing. Otter­bacher Amuse­ments are again bring­ing a vari­ety of rides and concessions.

Daily spon­sors of the fair include the Mor­row County Com­mis­sion­ers; Dis­count Drug Mart, Black­stone Insur­ance Agency,Inc and Ger­man Mutual Insur­ance Co., Ramco Rental, Incl, Touch­stone Energy Day by Con­sol­i­dated Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, Burkhart Farm Cen­ter, Incl, Poet Bio Fuelt Refin­ing and Snow Trails. Earth Day will be observed Wednes­day, August 29.

There will be a vari­ety of enter­tain­ment on the small stage. Kingston of Mar­ion is spon­sor­ing the play­ing of bingo for seniors on Senior Day.

Junior fair coor­di­na­tor Julie Logan said, “Num­bers are close to the past (entries), some depart­ments have a few more, some a few less. BUSY as usual, early judg­ing went well. Many won­der­ful still projects com­pleted that will be on dis­play dur­ing the fair. Have made some farm vis­its and have seen some nice look­ing live­stock projects out there. Exhibitors are doing a nice job of tak­ing care of their ani­mals. Booths are set, barns are being cleaned, awards are being made ready. Never a dull moment in the junior fair. Hope­fully, we will have a mild week for weather dur­ing the fair. Come on out.”

As Williams points out, “with gas prices so high, peo­ple can stay close to home and visit the Mor­row County Fair and find plenty of entertainment.”

The board also wel­comes all to visit their new web site at http://www.morrowcountyfair.org

The fair board office can be reached by call­ing 419–947-1611. The junior fair office num­ber is 419–947-1657.

Posted by Taylor Kaser on Aug 22 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.