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Multi-purpose facility commission ponders new county fair
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| By: ADAM NORTHAM, DAILY LEADER Staff Writer |
September 14, 2009 |
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There's an Exchange Club Fair and an Ole Brook Festival, but Lincoln County does not have a true county fair.
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But that may be changing soon, possibly by next year.
Lincoln County Multi-Purpose Facility Manager Quinn Jordan said he, the multi-purpose commission and a small team of volunteers comprising select elected officials have been meeting for more than one year to plan and organize a weeklong Lincoln County Fair.
"I call it a mini state fair," Jordan said. "I want us to have a good old-timey fair, where you have canning and cooking contests and livestock shows, where people get together and enjoy their local talent and have a little fun in the meantime. We're going to do a full-fledged county fair."
If the fair becomes reality, Jordan said organizers have decided to employ Mitchell Bros. Amusement to run the event. The company is headquartered in Slidell, La., and works with the Choctaw Indian Fair and the popular Neshoba County Fair.
Mitchell Bros. Amusement representatives could not be reached for comment.
Jordan said hopes are to have the first fair next year, either in the spring or fall. A fall fair would compete regionally with established fairs like the Mississippi State Fair, not to mention local events like the Ole Brook Festival. Jordan said the Lincoln County Fair would not compete with the Exchange Club Fair.
"If it were in the fall, it would be after the Exchange Club Fair, not before," Jordan said. "Out of respect for what they do and the great things they do in the community. We will look at all our activities in order to place a date that will be good for the citizens of Lincoln County."
Multi-purpose commission chairman Dr. William Kimble said the commission and its volunteers chose to pursue a county fair as a project because it fits the mold of the facility's mission to host events for the community.
"Every decision we make on the commission, we try to sit back and keep this one thing in mind - the purpose of that facility," he said. "As we begin to plan the types of events we can put on, we think about how it will impact the citizens of the county. Is it something the people want? What things can we do to touch the most people? That project is one that came to the forefront first."
Kimble said the commission has considered a fair in the past, but the facility's new RV park - which he announced at 99 percent completion Monday at a meeting of the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors - had to be completed before such large events could be taken on.
"Now that it is beginning to come to a close, we hope to pull (the fair) project back to the front burner and have it become more of an active project," he said.
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©The Daily Leader 2009
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