At the request of the Auglaize County Commissioners, representatives of the Auglaize County Fair Board and Buckeye Farm Antiques met Thursday, along with the commissioners and the county administrator. Although the two groups were still not able to come to an agreement as far as renting the fairgrounds to the BFA for their events this year, both sides respectfully and amicably parted ways for now, in hopes that perhaps in the future, the BFA’s shows can return to the Auglaize County Fairgrounds.
The tone at the end of this meeting was a stark contrast to that of the fair board meeting Monday, when members of the BFA left mid-meeting, seemingly frustrated, when an agreement could not be reached.
Initially, the main intent of the meeting for the commissioners was to get all the facts onto the table from both sides. The commissioners, who received some 200 letters from various people in the county in support of the BFA in the predicament, wanted to be prepared to respond to the public.
"There’s no hard feelings,” BFA member Randy Baber said. “We’ve had a lot of discussion, tried to come up with some resolutions, and we are at an impasse, I’m sorry to say.”
See Friday's print edition for the full story.