News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Putnam County Commission voted down a recommendation Monday night to purchase 92 acres of property off of Interstate 40 for a new fairgrounds and expo center.
Fifth District Commissioner Bobby Williams was one of 11 commissioners to vote no. Williams said the county just doesn’t have the money to purchase the $2.5 million property and build a new fairgrounds and expo center.
“A lot of people don’t know that Putnam County has $180 million in debt right now,” Williams said. “Within the next five years we are looking at building two schools and we have to expand the jail because we are out of room. The conservative estimates on that are $100 million.”
“It would be really nice to have an ag center or expo center, but we just can’t afford it,” Williams said.
Williams said he’s all for selling the current fairgrounds and finding a new and smaller piece of property to build a new fairgrounds site, but without an expo center.
County Executive Randy Porter has been pushing for the commissioners to approve the land purchase. He said last night’s no vote was a missed opportunity for the county.
“It’s hard to find a piece of property that sits on the interstate like this one does,” Porter said. “Ultimately it’s the commission’s decision and we will keep looking. We can either buy something somewhere else or we will wind up doing something with the existing fairgrounds.”
The county had the option to purchase the property for $2.5 million. At least one company had shown an interest in purchasing the current fairgrounds for an estimated $10 million, which would have left the county with around $7.5 million to develop the new fairgrounds and expo center.
The commission voted down the recommendation to purchase the property with 11 no votes, 9 yes votes, and 1 abstention. Three commissioners were absent from the meeting.
