GREENVILLE—The Darke County Agricultural Society Board of Directors met on Wednesday evening to discuss Eldora Speedway, capital grant funds and more. All 11 board members were present.
First, Treasurer Marla Werner moved to remove two items from the agenda for the evening, “personnel contracts (jr. fair coordinator)” and “commissioner insurance report.”
Regarding personnel contracts, Rhonda Williams recently resigned from the position of 4-H Educator at the Ohio State Extension Darke County.
During roll call, Director Dean Neff asked why they were removing the first item, as he received a call that same day from someone interested in her position.
“I got a phone call at about 5 p.m., before I came in here,” he said. “With the one that was wanting to take over and do Beth’s [Martin] old job, Rhonda’s job.”
Werner responded and said because the job is not currently open, there’s no need to discuss it.
Next, Jerry Gappens, general manager at Eldora Speedway spoke to the board about the possibility of renting all four of the fair’s shuttles for the three big races held at Eldora this summer.
In exchange for the rentals, Gappens said Eldora will offer advertising of the Whiskey Meyers concert at the fair on the Eldora jumbotron.
“The board is pretty aware the concert you’ve brought in, Whiskey Meyers, they are the nationwide sponsor of the parade lap for all the outlaws across the United States,” Gappens said. “After some conversations with Jerry about opportunities to market the professional video we had put together, they just put up a brand new jumbotron, the largest jumbotron of any dirt track. The visibility will be great. The question is, can these two entities work together?”
Gappens added that the Great Darke County Fair and Eldora Speedway previously had a great working relationship.
“They used to come to the fair, they’d bring some simulators and cars, and then management changed on their end, management changed on this end,” Gappens said. “I’m wanting to kind of reestablish a relationship with the fairboard.”
Eldora Speedway will hold three major races this summer that they requested the shuttles for. In between the races, they will be housed at Eldora Speedway, and be covered by Eldora’s insurance.
The board resent a previous motion to not allow the rental, and passed a motion unanimously to allow it.
Next, the board discussed the capital grant funds.
Werner said as of right now, there’s nothing new.
“I have just been working on getting clarification from the state,” she said. “I’ve been talking with a gentleman from the state, talking about verbage. The grant is very vague.”
She added that she reached out to him, and hasn’t heard back in about three weeks. She said the board will definitely need to apply for an extension.
Director Brian Rismiller moved for the board to send out for bids while they work with the state for the community center project.
The motion carried.
Lastly, in his director’s report, Neff asked how the board is planning to do to fill William’s position as 4-H Educator.
Werner said the board will ask for resumes to fill the position.
“The committee has met,” Werner said. “We’ve talked to Rhonda and she resigned from her position as 4-H Educator. She didn’t resign her pposition as Jr. Fair Coordinator, so she’s staying in the role. We will go ahead and accept resumes, we will start that now, for two weeks. Anyone who would like to apply, they can do that, and we will start looking at those.”
The Darke County Fair Board meets the first Wednesday of every month at 7:30 p.m. at 800 Sweitzer St., Greenville, Ohio, 45331, in the meeting room across from the fair office. For more information, contact the fair office at 937-548-5044.
