Putnam County currently operating two fairground facilities, as transition to the new 160-acre site on Tennessee Avenue continues.
County Mayor Randy Porter said maintenance costs for the two sites remain fairly limited. He said growing capital needs at the landlocked site off Jefferson led to the new facility.
“We were having issues with the older grandstands, having to make sure we had a structural engineer reviewing them each year to make sure they were still safe to have the fair at, so it’s going to be a total, total change, much bigger, allowing us to do more stuff with the fair,” Porter said.
Porter said they are still finalizing the new property, featuring a midway twice as large as the previous one and an arena area that is 50 percent larger. Porter said the site features two new cattle barns and covered grandstands to replace the aging infrastructure at the former location.
“It’s been booked almost every weekend since it opened,” Porter said. “A lot of events during the week. It’s been unbelievable, got people that are booking out a year and two years in advance and also, even though the Expo Center, we’re just going to be opening the bids on it coming up on the 24th to start construction hopefully in July, I’ve already got people trying to rent it even though it’s not been built yet.”
Porter said the county does not currently have a specific plan for the old fairgrounds property. Porter said the 42-acre site is likely the largest and most valuable piece of open land available within the city limits of Cookeville.
“We’re just kind of letting it sit and see what happens and, you know, if something great comes along, I’ll take it to the commission, see if they want to do it and if not, why, for the next while, it’ll just be there,” Porter said.
Porter said the upkeep for the old fairgrounds is currently limited to mowing and utility costs that event organizers reimburse. Porter said the new fairgrounds are also maintained by the Parks and Recreation Department, with construction on the final barns and grandstand canopy expected to finish by late August or early September.
“There’s coming a point where the old fairgrounds is not going to be able to be used with the old grandstands and stuff, so we pretty much had to do it if we wanted to keep having a fair,” Porter said. “But it’s not just about the fair, it’s about all the other events that we’ll use it, so that was the key, making sure that we had some place that the county fair could continue but that we could build out more facilities to be able to bring in more tourism.”
Porter said events are still being held at the old fairgrounds downtown, including the fourth annual ‘Touch-A-Truck’ event this weekend and a demolition derby the following Saturday night.
“The buildings are just not good on it and would cost a fortune to try to replace those or redo those, so that’s the reason we did the new one,” Porter said.
Porter said the fair board is planning to move the fair to the Tennessee Avenue location next year for its 101st year.
