Improvements to be made to fairgrounds after this year's Medina County Fair

MEDINA — The Medina County Fair Board intends to start working on its master policy plan, which involves making improvements to the Medina County Fairgrounds after this year's fair. The matter was discussed at the commissioners meeting Tuesday. Commissioner Colleen Swedyk said Medina County Clerk of Courts Dave Wadsworth has historically allowed money from the title fund to be used for capital improvements within the county. This year's plan is to transfer $400,000 from the auto title fund to go toward the fair board's master policy plan. Board Director Denise Gerspacher said the goal is to proceed with replacing or maybe refurbishing restrooms in the main part of the fairgrounds to make them more accessible. "What we call our new restrooms, I know that they were there when I became a member of the board 30 years ago," she said. "Our new restrooms are a little bit old." The fair board also plans on taking down the ticket booth where concert tickets and grandstand tickets are sold, Gerspacher said. "We are also going to add some space for our junior leaders and our junior fair board for meeting and for storing supplies because they're our future," she said. "We want to take care of them. We really want them to become a part of this." Medina County Finance Director Brett Thomas will prepare a transfer resolution for the funding, Swedyk said. "In addition, I've asked Brett (Thomas) this morning to start researching the possibility of a loan where the county would pay itself back through the fair board at a better interest rate than they potentially could get out in the open market," she said. "Brett is going to spend the next couple of weeks researching a structuring of that that we would then discuss with the fair board and see if it would be something that they would want to do." The commissioners also discussed the county contributing toward the processing fees for the larger animals at the fair when they are donated to the county home. Swedyk said last year, $50 was contributed toward processing a hog and $100 was contributed toward processing cattle, and it was decided to do the same this year. Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.