While the theme of Carroll County’s 2009 Agricultural Fair is “Experiencing our Treasures Past and Present,” the Carroll County Board of Supervisors focused more on the fair’s future during its July 13 meeting.

With the fair changing venues from the Hillsville VFW to property behind the Southwest Virginia Farmers’ Market, Carroll County Administrator Gary Larrowe asked for the board’s approval of plans for the 2009 fair, so they could in turn be sent to Richmond for approval by the Virginia Department of Agriculture. And while a permanent building at the new fair site won’t be possible for the 2009 fair, which will take place from Aug. 27-30, the board unanimously voted to approve a study for constructing a permanent building onsite.

In presenting the plans to the board, Larrowe began by showing a parking area at the wholesale building of the Farmers’ Market and a proposed onsite building for the future.

“I think what we would end up doing is trying to do something less than a permanent structure this year because we wouldn’t have the clearance from Virginia Department Of Agriculture and Consumer Services this year, but hopefully we will in the future,” Larrowe said.

A driveway through the property will allow for vendors on either side, Larrowe said. Separate areas have been designated for a carnival, a tractor pull, horse pull, and a stage area. A parking lot has been planned for vendors and other people that need to be on the premises. There are also areas for a horse show, a cattle ring, an FFA barnyard, and a pet show.

“There is also a big dirt pile in the middle and we could not get everything lined out as far as the Erosion & Sediment plan in place this year, not knowing if we would end up using it,” Larrowe said. “The future plans would be next year this would be spread out across the property.”

There will be two double-entry access points to the site, Larrowe said, and fencing around the property would help to maintain and control crowds. For parking, Larrowe said the fair committee would like to utilize some of the space at the Farmers’ Market Retail Building, as well as at the log home sales center and the county cannery.

Fair Committee Chairman Kevin Semones wanted to thank the VFW for allowing the county to utilize its property for the fair the past four years.

“They helped us to get going and there has been a lot of folks that have helped on the thing. The biggest thing is we need a place when we build something, it is kind of ours to have,” Semones said. “It is hard to do that on other folks’ land. It is hard to know what weekends we can and can’t get. And when you are working with carnivals and tractor pull groups and horse pull groups, all of them have weekends booked at other places already so it is hard to move all the time.”

Finding carnival groups to work with has been a challenge for the fair committee over the past four years, Semones said. Though he didn’t mention it by name, Semones referred to the carnival that didn’t show up in Galax for the locality’s July 4th activities.

“I have talked to the carnival company to make sure we don’t have the problem somebody else did in the past couple of weeks,” Semones said. “He assured me we are fine.”

Semones said a beauty pageant, beef and dairy show, music, tractor pull, horse pull and pet show are some of the highlights of this year’s fair. New events are also being planned. The proposed building on the site plan would probably be 40-foot by 80-foot or 40-foot by 100-foot, Semones said. At that point, Laurel Fork District Supervisor Andy Jackson made a motion for the county to do a study to construct a permanent building onsite.

“I would like to propose that we start today and go forward to get that building built. I would like to see it 40-by-100 foot because I don’t believe in doing something twice,” Jackson said. “The motion would be to start today the planning and working forward with all the aspects to get the building built.”

Jackson said that would include having Larrowe get approval from the Virginia Department of Agriculture to host the fair behind the Farmers’ Market. Then the county could compare the cost of building a metal building versus a stick building. Semones noted he had already done some rough estimates. The cheapest thing he’s found so far is a plain building at about $10 to $12 per square foot. That building doesn’t have a floor, however, and would require the county to come back later to add bathrooms and concrete flooring.

“I think Mr. Jackson’s motion really says he wants to see a plan before we start and figure out what we need, and within that study let’s build it once so we don’t have to build it twice or three or four times,” Board of Supervisors’ Chairman David Hutchins said. “It would be a staff-engineered building for public safety and all those kind of things.”

As far as the height, Jackson said he would like to see a building the county could use for anything it wanted throughout the year. A 14-foot roof, for instance, could be used for basketball or volleyball.

“It would be cheaper to go ahead and build it higher now than to raise the roof later,” Fancy Gap District Supervisor Manus McMillian said.

Even if the county had to wait a little longer, Jackson said it would make sense to make the roof big enough from having to be expanded later.

“We’ve got one fairly large building proposed,” Larrowe said. “We might find we need two smaller ones, so I don’t want to get into the mindset that this is only one building.”

By spreading out the dirt pile in the middle of the fairgrounds, Jackson said the county could put in another concession stand or building in the middle of the property.

McMillian then seconded Jackson’s motion for a study to define what type and size building would be needed. The motion passed unanimously.

Larrowe said the motion would allow him to take the general layout concept to the Virginia Department of Agriculture for approval.

“And then we would end up starting the work on a facility in conjunction with the fair committee about what is necessary,” Larrowe said.