By Ryan Berry

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — The Darke County Fair Board continues to move forward with the new Cargill Community Education Center and Hills Pet Nutrition Dog Arena Pavillion and trying to get at least a portion of the building ready before the begins on Friday, Aug. 16.

Blacktop and landscaping dominated the first meeting in July, and it dominated the meeting again at the second meeting in July. Although it was approved to move forward with blacktop and landscaping, the scope of the work is still in question. Board members agreed at the first meeting in July to meet with the paver and landscaper and work out how both could be accomplished. On Wednesday, it was evident that meeting did not take place.

Jim Zumbrink, director, announced the paver would be prepping the site in the next couple of weeks with the possibility of laying the first coat of asphalt prior to the fair. He explained the second coat would be installed after the fair and that coat would be the important coat that levels everything out.

After meeting with the paving company and general contractor, Zumbrink said he believes that having the landscape go straight across would be more beneficial for the front of the building. The original landscaping plan has a swoop toward the end of the landscaping. Zumbrink said the swoop would take away some of the walkway in between the parking lot and the landscaping, which would cause people using the building to have to walk around the cars instead of using the walkway.

Christoph Keller disagreed with the assessment and suggested they keep the landscaping as it was designed by Flory Landscaping with a swoop toward the end of each side. He believes that design dresses up the building better.

Zumbrink said there is limited space to install parking in front of the building. There is approximately 27 feet from the building to the road and 20 feet is needed for parking. With four- to five- feet needed for landscaping, that would leave very little space for the walkway and the swoop would take away more of the walkway.

Zumbrink expects the crews to begin prepping the area for asphalt in a couple of weeks, but that could be delayed if there is uncertainty as to where the asphalt will be installed.

There were questions as to why they would want to asphalt the area before next spring. Zumbrink explained that if they wanted to rent the building over the winter it should be asphalted. He said it would make it more difficult to remove snow if it was gravel.

Zumbrink said, “We’ve got to make up our minds so Bobby (paver) knows what to do.” Keller revealed the landscaping company will not be able to discuss the issue until the beginning of next week. Zumbrink countered that the paver needs to know if the landscaper will need to dig down to install the retaining wall or if they plan to install it on top of the asphalt.

When the question arose about when the building will be ready to prepare for the fair, there was some uncertainty. Zumbrink believes they will have the south end of the building ready before the fair but the north end where the kitchenette is will probably need to be shut off to fair-goers. The dog department would like to have a ribbon cutting in early August to celebrate the opening, but the fair board gave a worst-case scenario that the building would not be ready for the dog department to begin set up until three days before the fair opening.

They will have to wait for the floor to be cured, and paint and drywall installed. With approximately one month until the start of the fair, the building had not been completely enclosed.

In other business, the board had a long discussion over the installation of the proposed fair supporter Wall of Fame. Craig Bowman, director, originally wanted to install the Wall of Fame in the new building, but he received negative feedback regarding where to place the recognition. Some board members felt it would distract from the building and may hamper the ability to rent the building for events. Bowman expressed his frustration that there were no negative comments over the past three months when he asked to move forward with the project. He made a motion to move forward with the project with a location of the Wall of Fame to be determined at a later date. The motion passed 10-1 with Curtis Yount voting against it.

The board will hold a special meeting on July 31, 8 p.m. The board felt that waiting three weeks to have their next meeting prior to the fair was too long. The meeting will be held in the Secretary’s Office, Darke County Fairgrounds.

To contact Daily Advocate Editor Ryan Berry, email [email protected].