The Darke County Agricultural Society held a special meeting on 7/19 with all 11 members of the Board present.
Darke County Harness Horse Racing Association President Tim Reck reported to the Board that he has received 6 sponsorships for the barns: Gower & Sons Painting and the American Legion Post #140 signed for $500 sponsorship, Jim Buchy, Wieland Jewelers, Sharps Tavern and Chris Gilbert paid $250 each Tim shared that he is in contact with several additional sponsors, but is waiting for their final response.
Tim also asked the Board to apply for a Grant that’s offered from the Ohio Harness Horse Racing Association. This Grant, together with the sponsorships would help to get the repairs of the stalls done faster
Tim Reck also talked about partnering again with the Darke County Shrine Club and bringing back the 50/50 Raffle, but want to be sure that the members of the Shrine Club don’t be heckled again like last year. The Board assured Tim that this won’t happen again and Brian Rismiller said that he would even go out in the Grandstand with the Shriners to protect them.
Jayden Hicks (Jr Fairboard President) informed the Board about the Stock the Trailer Fight the Hunger contest (Ohio wide contest). The Jr. Fair Board will place a trailer at the east side of the Youth Building and people will stock this trailer with cans of food. At the end of the fair, they weigh the donated cans on the trailer. The winner of the contest gets $5000, second gets $3000, and third gets $1000.
The Fair Board also talked about the upcoming election. Six board seats that are up for election: two seats will be for a two-year-term, four seats for a three-year-term. Candidates, who are interested in running must decide whether they are running for the two-year or three-year term. To be eligible to run in this election, the candidates must attend two published meetings. Since it previously wasn’t clarified in the rules, when the candidates had to attend, the Board voted at this meeting that this requirement must be fulfilled during the current fiscal year of the election, that means between December 2022 and August 2023.