ROME TOWNSHIP — The concrete foundation for the new fair barn is scheduled to be poured on Thursday. The next day the main structure of the barn will be delivered.

“They will start putting it together in the infield while the concrete is being cured,” Jim Gore, fair board president, said. “Then they will take cranes to move it.”

The concrete must stand for 14 days before the assembled barn can be placed on to the permanent site.

At Monday night’s fair board meeting 11 people vied for five campground spots that had opened up for this summer’s fair.

There are 120 camping sites at the fairgrounds that are rented for the week for $200 each. Those with the campground spots keep them year after year until they wish to give them up. Then those sites are made available to the public.

“We started a lottery two years ago,” Gore said. “We used to put people on a waiting list.”

However, sometimes a person on the list would get a campsite the next year but in other cases the wait could go on for years. The fair board decided a lottery would be a fairer system.

Bob Clyse has pledged to finance a fence to go around the barn and arena at a cost of $29,000, Gore said.

Also before fair week, the fair board plans to build a chicken barn at the end of the rabbit barn because of an increase in the number of 4-H projects for chickens and rabbits.

“There are 50 more pens of rabbits than last year and 12 more pens of chickens,” Gore said.

Part of the cost for that addition will come from the proceeds of the upcoming Doug Clark Memorial Spaghetti dinner set for Tuesday, May 22, at Fairland Middle School.

Sponsorship tickets for $100 each are available from Gore. Sponsors will get their name in the programs for the dinner and the fair and on a permanent sign inside Monty’s Pizza restaurant on the fairgrounds.

More than $700 in door prizes will be given away at the dinner including a shotgun donated by CNS Guns in Ironton and gift cards for area restaurants.

Sponsorships are available from Gore at 740-532-4780. Tickets for the dinner are $20 and available at the door or from any fair board member.