Putnam Taking Bids On Next Step For Fair Arena

Putnam County accepting bids for projects surrounding the covered arena at the New Putnam County Fairgrounds.

Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said before the grandstands can go up around the arena this summer, contractors will need to create a suitable surface. He said gravel, pavement, and sidewalk work on the surrounding terrain, and top-coat dressing in the arena area itself headline the work set to be bid on through April 2.

“We’ve got it broken up into a lot of pieces with pavement, sidewalks, and all those kinds of things in different phases,” Porter said. “So, we’re just putting this bid out to kind of see where we’re going to be at and get an idea of what we can afford to do and what we can’t.”

Porter said the new arena is roughly twice the size of the arena at the Old Fairgrounds. He said it is too early to get a feel for what the price will look like, but he hopes for this to be a reasonable expense given the soaring construction prices right now. He said he hopes to have the work finished by the fall.

“We’ll have the horse shows, and the demolition derbies, and the motorcycle races,” Porter said. “It’s a large arena.”

He said county officials will analyze the level of interest and financial feasibility at their upcoming prebid meeting. Porter said he is excited to have projects like this nearing their next steps, noting that the growth of the entire area will bring in hotel/motel tax, and therefore, lower property tax throughout the county.

“It’s going to be a great location, great place with the arena and the midway and the new convention center and hopefully, in the near future, the new expo center and the covered arena,” Porter said. “Once we get all the phases done, this is going to be a nice place to bring in, we think, a lot of out-of-town events.”