By Ryan Berry

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — Greg Pearson was once again chosen to lead the Darke County Agricultural Society. Pearson received unanimous support from the society’s board of directors.

After the new board members were seated, Apollo Perez and Christoph Keller, the board opened the nominations for the three officer positions. Pearson was the only person nominated for the position of president.

There was a shakeup in the leadership when Jim Zumbrink and Heidi May were nominated for vice president. May won the secret ballot and will now serve as an officer for the society.

Werner returns as the board’s treasurer after winning the secret ballot vote over nominee Craig Bowman.

Director Curtis Yount tried to shake up the way the board normally operates and offered a motion to move the monthly meetings from 7:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The motion failed with six directors voting against the motion.

There was discussion over ticket and membership prices for the upcoming year. According to Zumbrink, Keller presented information to the board that showed Darke County is toward the lower end of the pricing range for area fairs. The current membership price is $25, which gets the holder into all nine days of the fair. The single day ticket is $7. Director Dave Singer moved that the board raise single ticket to $8. The motion failed with a 7-4 vote, which means tickets prices will remain the same next year. Bowman pointed to the state of the economy as the reason he voted against raising the price. He said they “need to keep it cheap for families, the way the economy is.”

There was some discussion over allowing some of the horsemen in Barn 3 to fix their own stalls. Tim Reck pointed out they have not received the lumber yet and the wood they have available would only fix a few of the stalls. The lumber yard is expected to begin sawing the logs at the end of this week or early next week. Because the lumber needs time to cure, it would be the beginning or mid-December before they could begin the restoration of the barns. There is enough lumber on-hand to fix the stalls in Barn 6. He said he preferred they continue with the plan to finish Barn 6 before working on the other barns.

Reck pointed out that if the board decided to allow the horsemen to patch up the broken boards in Barn 3, it would most likely need to be taken out and redone when they begin work in that barn because they will be going from horizontal to vertical boards.

The board left it in the hands of Reck to decide. Bowman did point out that Barn 6 needs to be completed before next year’s fair because they received a $15,000 donation from one of the individuals that uses that barn during the fair.

Director Dean Neff announced the Darke County Agricultural Society is holding another fundraiser to help with funding projects for the fair’s buildings and grounds. The Darke County Agricultural Society’s Firearm Raffle features seven different guns. Seventy-five raffle tickets will be sold for each gun. All but two of the guns are legal to hunt with. Only 75 tickets will be sold for each of the guns. The cost is $20 per ticket for the following guns – Savage 110 Hog Hunter, Mossburg 835, Palmetto State Armory Admiral 911, Smith and Wesson Shield E-Z and Glock 43X. Tickets are $10 each for the Traditions Pursuit G4.50 and Cali Muzzleloader.

In order to qualify to purchase a ticket for the DPMSD DR-15, participants must purchase a ticket for one of the other firearms.

Tickets are available at the Secretary’s Office at the Darke County Fairgrounds, from a Darke County Agricultural Society Director or at MM Defense. The firearms are available for viewing at MM Defense on Wagner Avenue in Greenville. All federal laws apply, and the winner must be able to pass the background check required to purchase a weapon.

To contact Daily Advocate Editor Ryan Berry, email [email protected].