Potential Land Identified For New Fairgrounds In Putnam Co.

Putnam County’s Mayor has located two potential sites for a new fairgrounds or expo center.

The Trinity Church property sits on Old Sparta Road near Highway 111.

The first property sits off Tennessee Avenue and includes between 110-125 acres. A second property along Old Sparta Road totals 109-acres and would cost $34,800 per acre.

Mayor Randy Porter said County Commissioners have until November at the latest to make a purchasing decision.

“Don’t think of this as just a fairgrounds. If all you want is a fairgrounds, we can buy either one of these pieces of property and we can go out and build an arena and spend a whole lot less money,” Porter said. “My thought is, and the previous commission’s was, is that we build an expo or an event center that’s going to bring in revenue and events to the county.”

The county originally looked at the old Tennessee Motor Speedway property, but the previous county commission rejected that land. At the time, commissioners questioned the $2.5 million price tag and didn’t want to locate a new fairgrounds outside Cookeville.

Porter said Monday night that doing nothing would not be an option for this new group of commissioners. He noted the poor condition of the current fairgrounds and difficulty in finding large tracts of land with infrastructure.

“If you don’t want to do this, we’re going to have to spend some money out at that fairgrounds or stop the fairgrounds all together,” Porter said. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I think the fair draws a lot of people in and I think a new one would too.”

Porter has options on both properties until the end of November. The first parcel has a $27,000 per acre price tag and does not have access to sewer. The second property already has sewer and water.