Many renovations done throughout fairgrounds

By Elise Franco

and Ashley Luthern

efranco@vindy.com

aluthern@vindy.com

Canfield

The Canfield Fair Board spends about $300,000 annually on maintenance and improvement projects, and this year was no exception.

George Less, fair board director, said one of the major projects completed before the 2010 fair was the renovation of Old McDonald’s Barn. Less said about $20,000 was spent replacing the floor and drain systems and doing structural repairs.

“The building’s foundation was getting weak, so we repaired the poles, put in a new drain system and laid concrete on the floor,” he said.

Less said the old floor was blacktop, which wore down quickly.

“It’s easier to walk safely and push strollers over the concrete,” he said. “The blacktop had moved and warped and was uneven in spots.”

Gwynn Hunter of Poland parked a stroller for her daughter Gracie outside the barn, but once inside, she realized she didn’t need to do that this year.

“The animal cages are pushed back, and there’s new pavement,” Hunter said. “We come to the fair every year, at least four out of the six days, and this is always a stop and their favorite place.”

Jamie Kehoe of Youngstown called the renovation a “big change” and said her 15-month-old son, Jamie, could see better from his stroller perch.

“This is very clean looking and has a more open atmosphere,” she said.

Less said erecting a new building such as Old McDonald’s Barn could cost around $50,000, but the board world rather spend that money to maintain the current buildings.

“We’d spend in renovations as much as it would cost to build a new building because of the historical value,” he said.

New drain systems were installed in several other areas, as well, Less said, including the Education Building.

“A lot of it is that over the years it seems they didn’t raise the foundations up enough,” he said. “You need a good foundation to keep the building [in shape.]”

The other costly project was the paving of several roads inside the grounds, Less said.

“The longest one was Miller, which goes almost from one end of the grounds to the other,” he said. “We also did a few other roads and did some patching.”

Less said the paving cost about $70,000.

He said all the money spent on maintenance is taken from the fair board’s general fund.

“The foundation work we do is preventive, but the majority of the other things are for safety reasons,” he said. “We concentrate on looking around the grounds for bumps, humps and cracks.”