40. Community Need The Montgomery County Fairgrounds is owned and maintained by the Montgomery County Agricultural Society (MCAS). The MCAS is a non-profit organization that holds the annual county fair and is also an event venue. Our venue not only invites customers from our own county but invites and brings in visitors from surrounding cities, villages, counties and states. Since our recent move to our new location in 2018, we have also brought in clients from overseas.

First and foremost, the MCAS's goal is to educate the public, young and old alike about agriculture. We would like everyone to be aware of where their meat, veggies and milk come from. Our goal is informing the public of the processes that food goes through; what it takes to get food from the farm to the table in a safe and healthy manner. That is the purpose of our County Fair.

Secondly, our mission is to provide a fun, safe and beautiful environment for our customers and residents to use throughout the year. Two important components that are lacking for both the County Fair and the rental venue are electrical needs throughout the entire grounds and a fully enclosed perimeter fence. Both of these factors into the safety of our grounds during all events.

1. Electrical is present on the grounds, however; it is isolated to just one area. The goal is to expand the electrical infrastructure to several areas so that we are no longer forced to spend our resources on renting generators, and light towers. Not only are our resources being depleted but having generators on the grounds while attendees are enjoying shows presents a risk of fires or explosions. The presence of electricity will provide a safer environment for our guests, staff and the county in general.

2. The lack of perimeter fencing allows patrons to come onto the grounds without being vetted by entering the grounds through our main walk-in gate. This is also a safety concern as there is no control over who walks through the gates in an improper fashion. Having the grounds fenced in will allow our staff and sheriffs to have better control over the patrons that are on the grounds; this makes everyone feel more secure.

Both of the items above stand on their own merit without expounding; however, I would be remiss to not share with you that the Fairgrounds is the perfect site for and has already been used in our 5 shorts years at the new location for emergency planning and emergency assistance. Our facility has been utilized for a COVID drive-thru test site during and after the pandemic as well as being used for a staging area for food and water distribution after the tornadoes that ripped through Montgomery County. We are one of the only sites that offers both full hookups camping along with 4 very large accommodating buildings. Two out of 4 of the buildings have running water, restrooms and are climate controlled. Our campgrounds offer water and electric hookup with a dump station on site for black & gray water. We also offer a restroom/shower house near the campgrounds. We are not only the perfect site for local assistance but also the perfect location for State and Federal public assistance programs such as FEMA.

We spent over $70,000 yearly to run generators during the fair. The electrical upgrades offer a large return on investment yearly. Once this investment is complete for the electrical infrastructure expansion, we will no longer need to rent generators and will be able to invest those funds in other areas of improvements. The perimeter fencing will allow us to maintain and control the paid patrons that come through the gates. We have no system to tell us how loss we have suffered or will gain due to people sneaking into our events. We do know that it happens frequently and that the financial gain will most likely be significant.

The long-term effects are endless. The lack of potential explosions from generators would potentially save lives or anyone who might suffer from such a traumatic experience. The long-term effect of safely monitoring who enters our grounds could also potentially save lives. I cannot think of a better long term effect than looking out for the safety, security and wellbeing of our residents and visitors.

The Montgomery County Fairgrounds is situated Jefferson Township which is an underserved region of our county. We believe these improvements will bring even more rental customers to an underserved area and in turn bring economic growth.

Thank you for taking the time to review this application.