BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Bradford County’s plan to acquire the fairgrounds by purchasing its debt is not going as quickly as planned.
The Bradford Fair Association’s legal response to the foreclosure lawsuit filed by James L. Gissy has moved the case forward to a hearing next month.
County commissioners felt out of the loop when meeting about their budget last week and County Manager Scott Kornegay explained attorneys for the county and fairgrounds were communicating.
Commissioner Chris Dougherty said there had been comments about where else the county could be spending its $1.7 million, but he expressed the commissioners’ position. They want to preserve the fairgrounds and the annual fair for what it has meant, particularly to the youth in Bradford County. Should someone else acquire the property, they might have different plans.
“However it ends up, we’ve done everything we can,” he said. “We tried twice. We tried last year, and we tried this year, right? And so, I don’t want to be slung in the mud because we didn’t try.”
“We know where we’re at,” Commission Chairman Danny Riddick said. “I’ve been talking to some people. We’ve got big plans for that fairground property, if the county gets it.”
The more time that passes, the more the cost increases as interest on the unpaid debt grows.
“The longer it goes on, the more expensive it gets because the default rate that was incurred in November of last year is 24.99%,” Kornegay said.
“The bottom line is, it’s just exactly what Commissioner Dougherty said. Do I want another $1.7 million headache? Not really. But I do not want to see that fair go under for the citizens of Bradford County,” Riddick said. “We can take it and make it so much more with our resources, and it will all be about the children and the citizens.”
On March 4, Attorney James Taylor Jr. filed a motion on behalf of the fair association to dismiss Gissy’s complaint, claiming it failed to state a cause of action. According to the filing, default has not occurred per the terms of the amended loan agreement, which ties default to the maturity date of the loan. That is in November of this year.
A hearing with Circuit Judge George Wright has been scheduled for April 4.
