The roofs of the Beef Barn and the Home & Family Arts Building at the fairgrounds are in bad shape. The current electrical infrastructure is inadequate.
To help the Kosciusko County Community Fair address those needs - which are just some of the repairs that are needed at the fairgrounds - the Kosciusko County American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Committee voted Wednesday to recommend $85,790 be granted to them. The County Council and Commissioners must approve the recommendation.
Additionally, County Administrator Marsha McSherry presented seven county projects for ARPA funds, all of which the committee voted to recommend for approval.
Total cost of all eight recommendations is $625,350.
On the Fair’s ARPA request, Fair President Randy Shepherd explained, “In the past our buildings haven’t had the maintenance that they needed, so we are in dire need of doing some repairs, and the same with our infrastructure and power is lacking in many areas, as you know, as we move forward. The power requirements go up with the bigger fans and such that they bring in.”
He said for the ARPA funds request they chose two buildings that are probably in the worst shape - the Beef Barn and the Home & Family Arts Building. The cost of extending the life of the roof for the Beef Barn is $44,616, with the cost of the roof repair for the Home & Family Arts Building being $31,174. Both buildings have metal roofs and have several leaks.
On the electrical project, Shepherd said, “What we’d like to do is actually bring in another service between the Beef Barn and the Dairy Barn, and separate out the 4-H office and the Beef Barn/Dairy Barn and Show Barn - divide them up to where we can actually have equal power or supply ample power for those buildings.”
The cost for that is about $10,000, he said.
County Commissioner Cary Groninger, who is one of three ARPA Committee members, said the fair’s request is to try to maintain the buildings.
“Obviously, I know there’s conversations being had out there. I know (state Rep.) Craig Snow is working to try to get money raised to do a building study at the fairgrounds and just an overall long-term plan of how we can make the fair more sustainable or a facility that the fair can be at,” Groninger said.
Even if that project moves forward, he said it’s at three to five years out, and the roofs and electrical infrastructure are more immediate needs that the fair board has to keep the buildings useable.
During the fair this year, a transformer blew causing a fire on the pole. Groninger said with the electrical project the Fair Board is trying to rectify any issues so they’re not overloading any particular circuit.
“So, I think the thing that they did here was they looked at the repairs that needed to be done, kind of prioritized them at a level that - picking three of them out, not that there isn’t a lot more that could be done - but at the same token knowing that long term there may be something different at that property or a different facility, or whatever might happen. I don’t want to speculate to that, but at the same token we can’t let what we have fall down around our ears. It makes it unusable during the time period,” Groninger said.
Shepherd agreed, saying that to make them last a few more years, they have to do something now.
Everything that involves providing electrical power to the fair property belongs to the fair, including the transformers, wiring and all their maintenance, he also informed the committee.
Groninger brought up what the committee has left to spend with ARPA funds. They have less than $73,000 that’s not been appropriated. However, there’s a difference of $715,000 between what was appropriated for the Justice Building renovation project, which was $2.4 million, and the actual bid of $1.6 million, County Administrator Marsha McSherry said.
County Councilwoman Sue Ann Mitchell made the motion to recommend the ARPA funds for the fair, with Council President Mike Long seconding the motion, which passed 3-0.
The ARPA dollars have to be appropriated by Dec. 31, 2024, and spent by the end of 2026.
McSherry then went through the seven county projects and the ARPA funding requests for them.
The first was $23,000 for a county jail parking lot camera system. “When the Justice Building parking lot is renovated, which will start here about the 12th of August, included in that project is the conduit to run fiber to put cameras in that parking lot,” she said. The cost just includes the cameras and not the fiber.
The second request was for $64,435 for updating the security system at the Kosciusko County Work Release, 2605 E. Center St.
For painting, priming and repainting of the main entrance and lobby of Work Release, another $7,800 is being requested.
The largest request is for $220,000 for Justice Building furniture. McSherry said it’s for chairs and benches in Superior Court I, Circuit, Juvenile, all the lobbies, all the side chairs on the second floor and then the offices and jury rooms.
Mitchell said what she found amazing about it was that it cost $16,000 to install chairs.
“These are in the courtrooms and a lot of them are attached to the floor, and each single chair of about 100 of them have about six bolts into the floor. They are removing all of those chairs and they are installing new chairs, and it’s very time-consuming - trust me - because we’ve been doing it for the renovation and every one of those has to be taken apart, save the bolts, put them back in. It’s very time-consuming,” McSherry explained.
Groninger said it’s a concrete floor.
Another $66,900 will be recommended for the ongoing complete building assessment. McSherry said hopefully by September or October the county will have that assessment back.
The second largest request is for $150,000 for an exterior camera system for the county courthouse. The county has applied for a grant for the cameras, and if the county receives that grant, it won’t need the ARPA funds.
The final request is for $7,425 for the Kosciusko County Work Release Center parking lot. It needs sealant and new striping.
The next committee meeting is at 1 p.m. Oct. 16, with the last one of the year set for 1 p.m. Nov. 13.