MANSFIELD — A farmer’s offhand remark six years ago helped lead to the ceremonial groundbreaking Thursday for a new $1.2 million show arena at the Richland County Fairgrounds.
“A farmer was looking at our old show arena and said, ‘We need to do something here, folks,'” said David Dick, a member of the Richland County Agricultural Board of Directors.
“Then it just kind of snowballed into maybe we could do a multi-purpose building, which is what got us here today,” Dick said.
The project will provide a new 9,200-square foot building that will provide additional space and safety for spectators and those showing animals, and increase revenue opportunities for the fairgrounds.
“There’s a lot of people to thank for this. We had approximately 150 donors,” said Dick, a farmer and Mansfield attorney who helped spearhead the lengthy fundraising effort to its inclusion Feb. 20 when Richland County commissioners agreed to provide $200,000 from their capital funds.
“We are eternally grateful to all of our donors and people who put their time into this,” Dick said, also thanking his wife, Marci, and his “partner in crime” in the effort, Dave Grauer.
“If you don’t know Dave, he is a doer. There is going to be continual work on this project, particularly for him and I. But from the get-go, he and I spent countless hours on this to get it where we need to be,” Dick said.
“This project is not just going benefit the fair and the youth, it’s going to be awesome having a big show arena, but with the restrooms, the heat, the concrete … it’s going to be able to be rented year round,” Dick said.
“It’s going to provide further economic growth and development in this area. It’s endless what this building can be used for and I think it’s going to help this community greatly,” Dick said.
Adena Corp. of Mansfield is handling construction of the new arena, built with its front entrance about 30 feet in front of the current arena on the north side of the fairgrounds.
‘We’re hopeful it’s going to be up and running for this year’s fair (in August),” he said. “Adena’s got a great crew and a great gameplan.
“We’ll see how the profession comes, but this year’s fair will be probably a little bit awkward in terms of figuring out the logistics of everything,” he said.
Dick told commissioners Feb. 20 the new arena would take a “little bit” of the midway.
“Some of the vendors are going to get pushed back a little bit more. There’s a lot of grass area that is in front of the hog barn and next to this new building that we will ultimately at some point put asphalt in for more parking, things of that nature,” Dick said then.
He said the new structure and its location next to the midway could also attract in fairgoers who have never watched livestock shows in the past.
Dick said the new arena would utilize portable bleachers, which could be configured in different ways, depending on the needs of an event.
