Putnam Fairground Plans Underway

Plans for the new Putnam County Fairgrounds are getting underway.

Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said that the March tornado and COVID has slowed down progress on the project. He said the architects and engineers are using the down-time to come up with different options for officials to consider.

“They continue to work on those and trying to come up with some rough draft drawings so we can start thinking about what we want it to look like  ,” Porter said. “There’s a lot of background work that has to be done that’s going to take several months to do, so they’re doing that while we are in this lull period.”

Porter said the county will work with the Putnam County Fair Board and other community organizations that use the fairgrounds to formulate a plan that is beneficial to everyone.

The Putnam County Commission purchased 187 acres surrounding Tennessee Avenue in October. The land, which Porter said will be used for a number of facilities, including the new fairgrounds, sold for just over $5 million.

Porter said it was actually the tornado that has hindered the project more than COVID. He said as the county is beginning to rebuild, more attention can be placed on the new fairgrounds.

“We had to get out of that immediate phase,” Porter said, “with the search, rescue, and immediate recovery. That took a few months, and with the cleanup from the debris. We’ve got that past us now, so we have some more time to be able to start looking and working some of these new projects, like the new fairgrounds and expo projects.”

Another advantage by being forced to move slow, Porter said, is it will allow Putnam County to get a better idea of how revenues will look as they proceed with the project.

“We’re going to do the best we can,” Porter said, “and come up with a nice facility that everyone would be happy with and that everyone would use.”