By Kimberly Pistone
For the Sidney Daily News
SIDNEY — The Shelby County Fair Board discussed the auction, the raffle, and preparations for the Fair at a meeting on Wednesday.
Nick Howell, chairman of the Sales Committee, attended the meeting to explain changes to the youth auction for this year’s Fair.
The auction will proceed as in previous years, with a change to how add-on buyers are handled. This year all 4H youth participating in the auction will need to register online, and the company Breeders World will take care of the sales as well as collecting the funds. Buyers will have to register online. Add-ons will not open until either the day of the sale or the day after, and add-ons will be available for a week to ten days after the auction.
Discussion regarding the change in how the auction add-ons are handled included that some local companies did add-on buys for additional advertising for their business because their names would be announced during the auction. Howell was pretty sure the past couple of years those add-on buyers were not announced during the auction so this would not be a change.
One change by using the auction company is that it should be a lot faster for 4H youth to receive their checks. Previously the Fair Board has paid the auction funds prior to receiving all the funds from buyers — in fact, the Board is still owed approximately $1,000 from last year. With this company if the buyer does not pay, the youth will not get the money. Other counties that use this company said they had their checks within four weeks of the auction.
Howell also mentioned that several counties, like Mercer and Darke, have gone to an online auction for everyone except the champions. Shelby County will continue to have all 4H youth participate in a live sale over the course of two days as in the past.
“Nothing really changes, just someone else doing the work,” Howell said.
There have been 424 raffle tickets sold so far. Board members were encouraged to continue to sell tickets. Also there will be a booth during Fair to sell tickets. The Fair Board needs to sell at least 1000 tickets.
Final preparation details such as getting the stage water sealed and completing the wash rack pens are on target to be finished prior to the Fair. The Board approved costs for adding some lights to the side of the barn where the wash racks are now located, covering the old wash water grate, and the overhead door for the old pony barn. Work nights for the Fair Board were set, the milk house inspection is in process and the scale certification is also being taken care of.
Chris Roediger, Shelby County Maintenance Supervisor, said the mower is in the shop again. It is a 16 year old mower with 1300 hours on it. The Board approved Roediger getting some demo mowers to test and encouraged checking with sponsors to help provide some demo mowers.
Regarding the Fair, Roediger said, “It is all coming together.”
Katie Hughes, 4H Youth Development Educator, said the Junior Fair office is in progress and should be done in time for the Fair, with the exception of the expansion on the side which isn’t needed during the Fair.
Hughes also said this year there will be no pig pen survey sent to the 4H youth, she will be using the fair entry numbers to decide how many pens each family needs, but she will be getting information from the 4H families prior to doing assignments to be sure to place people appropriately.
The Fair Board was approached by someone who wants to have a memorial bench placed on the fairgrounds. The board will be working with the family to get it placed and hopes it will be placed prior to the Fair this year.
The next fair board meeting will be held on at 7 p.m. on July 17 in the secretary’s office.
