• Features

Taylor shares the saga of Harvest Ridge with IAFE members

• By Dave Mast
• May 5, 2023
• 777

When the 2023 meeting of the members of International Association of Fairs & Expos Zone 3 convened at the fairgrounds at Harvest Ridge, the group was invited to glean some lessons and take away some advice on how to make the impossible possible.

Holmes County Senior Fair Board President Kerry Taylor addressed the group, divulging the challenge and success of the creation of the Fairgrounds at Harvest Ridge.

“On behalf of the Holmes County Senior Fair Board, we want to thank you for allowing us to host this event,” Taylor said in addressing the IAFE members. “It’s been an honor.”

Taylor thanked each member for their support during the past decade as the new Fairgrounds at Harvest Ridge evolved into what it is today. He said without that type of support, it would have been a much more difficult proposition. He also praised the members of the Harvest Ridge board and staff and said they continue to be the backbone of the center’s growth.

Then it was off to the history of Harvest Ridge and the effort to bring a distant vision to success in fashioning an undertaking few people thought was possible outside of Holmes County.

Taylor provided an in-depth look into how the Holmes County Senior Fair Board and a committee of people who never lost faith built a mostly vacant plot of land into one of the state’s premier fair locations.

He began by explaining the possibility of flooding the fair board faced every year.

“It was almost a running joke that became ‘fair week is coming; it must be going to rain,’” Taylor said.

He showed many photographs of flooded facilities, many of them so disastrous it could have been catastrophic had the flooding occurred during fair week.

“This was our plight at the Holmes County Fair for quite a long time,” Taylor said.

In 2004 he said a serious flood event caused the fair board to kick the idea of building or relocating the facility, and the Holmes County commissioners authorized $10,000 to the board to complete a feasibility study on the prospects of relocating the fairgrounds.

The search for land began near Holmesville on land adjacent to the Holmes County Home.

There was plenty of research, but Taylor told the attendees that was when the board switched gears in a hurry.

“The wrath of Holmes County came down upon us,” Taylor said of exploring that land as an option.

Issues like spending $16 million on a new fairground, disturbing the county home, not being near the hub of the county in Millersburg and many other thoughts shot down that path, and Taylor said they weren’t going to upset so many people.

“It was going to be difficult enough to do without creating an adversarial relationship in the community, so we scrapped the idea,” Taylor said. “We absolutely needed the support of the community.”

Raising the buildings and filling in the parking lot were bandied about, but research showed that was not feasible, nor did it make sense.

The process continued, and it would have been easy for the committee to get frustrated and lose hope.

That’s when Taylor said the biggest reason for Harvest Ridge became a reality.

“We had a united board that worked together,” he said. “Fair boards are made up of a large group of people. We had 22 members, and to not have any dissension was key in doing this.”

The fair board was adamant they keep the community apprised and wanted the people of Holmes County to understand this was their fairground and their input mattered.

“We couldn’t afford to have rogue information out there,” Taylor said.

The committee had to be patient, and Taylor said that wasn’t easy.

It took more than a decade for the fair board to see its work come to fruition, but nobody ever gave up, and the group showed accomplishing something monumental is sustainable only through a team effort.

The fair board continued to hear the same words from outside sources.

“You can’t do this. It’s not reality.”

Taylor said that only drove the group deeper in its commitment.

“That only served to add fuel to the fire,” he said.

The big break came in 2009 when Paul Weaver, owner of Weaver Leather, purchased land west of Millersburg. His goal was to build NewPointe Church there. He offered the fair board a solution.

If the board ran water and sewer to the facility 1 mile west of the village, he would donate the acreage to build the new fairgrounds. Then Bill Baker, owner of Multi Products, agreed to build a new building there with the stipulation it was to be available for Holmes County Share-A-Christmas four weeks out of the year. The fair board could use it the rest of the time.

Then came the fundraising portion, and Taylor told the IAFE members that witnessing the community support was inspiring.

At every turn it was community and unity, and the project everyone said was impossible became a reality. In 2016 they celebrated the inaugural fair at Harvest Ridge.

“Fair boards are a family, and our partnerships with many people in the community was the only way this could happen,” Taylor said.

Taylor told the IAFE members that Harvest Ridge wasn’t the only positive to come out of the events that unfolded. He talked about how the Holmes County Park District took over the former fairgrounds, turning the newly named Sapp’s Run into green space that is already being utilized by many groups.

“Harvest Ridge exemplifies everything great about Holmes County,” Taylor said. “It took an entire community, a lot of hard work and planning, and an investment by our community.”

That’s how to make the impossible possible.

“What we see here is something special and unique,” said Marla Calico, president and CEO of IAFE - The Network. “It is inspiring to see the way everyone came together to make this a reality. You don’t always see that happen, but when it does, you end up with something spectacular, which is what Harvest Ridge has become.”