9/5/12 Fairgrounds shaping up

  • By Nick Sabo
  • September 5, 2012
  • 346
                        
SUMMARY: New designs add more parking, moves horse arena The new home of the Holmes County fairgrounds continues to take shape, with expanded parking and a repositioning of the horse arena. Input gathered at this year’s fair and reworking of the site design has the multipurpose fairgrounds up to 1,963 parking spaces and a puts an additional 450 feet between the grandstands and horse arena. Plans for the site, dubbed Harvest Ridge, have been tweaked using input from fairgoers and an expanded look at how best to use the land, Tom Wilke, project manager, said. Previous plans had the horse arena and grandstands sharing the south end of the site, separated by a earthen barrier using the natural topography of the land. That was too close for equine enthusiasts, who are well aware of the effect noise from tractor pulls and the annual demolition derby have on animals. The new design moves the horse arena and barns to to the northwest, approximately 500 feet from the grandstands. The arena and barn are positioned at the end of a series of animal barns and a proposed exposition center running east to west along the north end of the fairgrounds. “I got a lot of feedback at the info booth at the county fair,” Wilke said. “We just want people to know we’re sensitive to the concern’s they’ve expressed and we’ve worked hard to address the concerns of those who attend the fair.” The grandstands are located on a slope that leads down to a flat piece of land containing a 400 by 70 feet tractor pull track and a smaller, 150 by 270 feet track. A small, central grandstand is planned for initial construction, with grass areas for seating on either side. Parking was expanded by moving into a corner of land in the southeast. The land was cut off by a stream, which will be bridged by culverts in two areas. This opens room for an additional 391 parking spaces. Past plans for the fairgrounds had parking maxed out at about 1,700 spaces. New Pointe Church, which shares the entrance/egress point off state Route 39 west with the fairgrounds, will open their 200-space lot for overflow parking, Wilke said. The former horse arena site is planned for a pit area behind the two tracks at the grandstand. The parking space numbers do not include a small RV parking area with 76 spaces. Wilke said earlier plans indicated that an RV lot would be possible only through acquisition of neighboring property. However, the newly-designed RV lot, with two loops and a cul-de-sac, fits snugly into the west-southwest property lines. To the north, above the proposed expo center, is a semi truck parking lot with 74 spaces. The new design shows little change in the expo center and animal barns. The natural aesthetics of the property will be mostly retained in a grading plan that will require moving some 500,000 cubic yards of earth. Wooded areas on the south, west and east will remain in place. The plan has yet to be reviewed and finalized by members of the Holmes County Agricultural Society. Wilke said he expects only small changes to the site plan from here on out. The multipurpose fairgrounds site is off located the intersection of state Route 39 and Township Road 301 and is composed of approximately 86 acres.


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