GREENFIELD — The Hancock County 4-H Agricultural Association plans to spend nearly $100,000 to update the fairgrounds’ restrooms, but the project won’t get completed before the 4-H fair in June.
Earlier this month, the Hancock County Council agreed to allocate $99,500 from a portion of the county’s 5% innkeepers tax — a fee charged to hotel guests — for the project. The two new restrooms, located inside the exhibit hall, will comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, said Josh Phares, ag association president.
4-H leaders wanted to update the restrooms in March, Phares said, but the project was delayed because of higher-than-expected bids and a hold-up with county boards. In March, Phares requested the county appropriate $60,000 for the project, and the county council unanimously agreed to do so.
But when the bids came back, they ranged from $93,000 to more than $130,000, Phares said.
While construction prices rose significantly over the past few months, Phares said the project’s scope also changed during its design process. Originally, Phares said the ag association board wanted to spruce up the exhibit hall’s restrooms, but when an architect looked at the facilities, she found that every aspect of the restrooms, excluding drain covers, did not comply with ADA.
“Since we want to do something simple as making it look better,” Phares said, “we have to gut the entire thing to make it compliant.”
The sinks and hand dryers are not at the correct height, and the turning radius for wheelchairs going into the handicapped stalls is too tight, Phares said. Crews will install new stalls, sinks, toilets, lights, smoke detectors and fire alarms as well as lower the ceilings and redo the floor, he said.
Even though the county council agreed for innkeepers tax funds to be spent on the project, the ag association next month will have to go before the Hancock County Tourism Commission for an OK on the project. The tourism commission decides how to spend the county’s innkeepers tax.
The county generates about $80,000 a year from one percentage point of the 5% innkeepers tax, Phares said. That money was initially earmarked for a new fairgrounds on property along U.S. 40 between North County Roads 400E and 500E, but those plans have stalled because of the county choosing to build a new jail on the site. The ag association has to now ask the council and tourism commission to use the account — which has a balance of about $200,000 — for the existing fairgrounds instead of a new site.
Phares said the ag association was hoping for the legislature to approve a 1% food and beverage tax to pay for a new fairgrounds, which had previously been estimated to cost about $18 million. Hancock County already taxes consumers a 1% food and beverage tax on top of the state’s 7% sales tax.
With no new fairgrounds in sight, Phares said he believes the ag assocation should be able to spend the innkeepers tax funds for the current fairgrounds. Last year, the 4-H group spent $92,000 from the innkeepers tax to repave the fairgrounds parking lot, Phares said.
“Without these funds, there is no possible way that we would be able to get anything updated that has been neglected over the past 20 years,” he said.
The fairgrounds also hosts many events during the year apart from the annual 4-H fair.
Bill Bolander, president of the Hancock County Council agreed, saying it’s “the right thing to do.”
The president of the tourism commission, George Langston, disagrees. Langston said the money earmarked in the innkeepers tax for the fairgrounds should only be used on a new site, adding that the county should eventually stop setting aside innkeepers tax monies for the stalled fairgrounds project.
Langston said the tourism commission is “caught between a rock and a hard place” in its pending decision.
Since the county council agreed for the money to be spent on the existing fairgrounds, Langston said the commission will most likely follow suit to move the project along. However, Langston said he can’t predict what decisions the commission’s four new members will make.
If the commission grants the funds, Phares said construction will take from three to six weeks.
The tourism commission will meet at 5 p.m. June 11 in Greenfield City Hall.
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The restrooms in the exhibit hall at the Hancock County 4-H Fairgrounds will be rebuilt to make them compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The restrooms will get all new fixtures and new floors, and the ceilings will be lowered, according to the county ag association, which is coordinating the work.
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