BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Bradford County and the Bradford County Fair Association have signed an agreement to turn ownership of the fairgrounds over to the county in exchange for the county paying its construction debt.
The total of the remaining loan and interest is more than $1.7 million, which will come from the county’s reserve funding. The debt was incurred during reconstruction. The fair association was counting on a follow-up appropriation of state funding to repay the debt, which was then acquired by a private investor. When the association failed to meet the payment schedule, the investor began foreclosure proceedings.
According to BFA President Bob Milner, the transfer should take place in April, with the county receiving all keys and inventory no later than May 1.
The county has agreed to lease the property back to the fair association for one year with an option to renew for additional one-year terms. Management will still be in the hands of the fair association, but its board will be reconstituted to include nine total members.
BCFA will choose four of the nine members. Bradford County commissioners will appoint the other five, one of whom will serve as chairman of the fair association board and only vote to break a tie. The board will meet in the sunshine at publicly noticed meetings and record and maintain public records.
Attorney Rob Bradley referred to the first year as a “trial run.”
In addition to preserving the property as a fairground and prevent private ownership and development, the agreement also ensures county continued access to emergency shelter facilities constructed with state funds.
Commission Chairman Danny Riddick approved the structure of the agreement, which allows for fair association members over multiple decades to remain involved and share their accumulated experience.
“I think it’s a reasonable way forward and with an appreciation of the good that’s happened in the past and acknowledgement of things that probably need to be repaired that happened in the past,” Bradley said. “You’re fixing those in the sense that you’re removing this debt that is encumbering this, and then you’re moving forward, brighter and bigger, but with control, so that if it goes bad, there’s accountability — but it’s not because you’re not going to let it.”
BCFA will host and operate events, including those hosted historically as well as others it has committed to or that are in the planning stages. In addition to the Strawberry Festival coming up this weekend, the Easter EGGstravaganza Egg Drop will take place April 19. Other planned events include a Beef Bash, Touch a Truck, a Spring Fair, Sounds on the Grounds concert series, the Starke Splash Bash, the Wannee Railroad Festival, two Six Gun Territory events and three wrestling shows.
