Ground broken for new Huron County Fair building

NORWALK — It's been a long road, but Huron County Fair Board members and their supporters are finally getting their new barn. The plans have been through several iterations over the last few years, but ground was finally broken for the new barn in an emotional ceremony at the Huron County Fairgrounds Thursday evening. The groundbreaking was hosted in front of the Weisenberger Arena at the fairgrounds. Construction will start in about two weeks and should be completed around the first of June 2025, said Roger Hunker, who is a member of the committee that launched the new barn. Hunker spoke to the group and talked about how the Feichtner Memorial Building will be an asset to the Huron County Fairgrounds and will be used to house animals as a key part of Junior Fair activities for 4-H and FFA exhibitors. Hunker called the groundbreaking a "momentous occasion" and said, "This project was born from tragedy." The new building will be 100 feet by 200 feet and plans include concrete, electric and water, said fair board president Bob Morgan. Plans do not include a kitchen, bathrooms, or a meeting room. The new building will be named after Huron County farmer and cattleman John Feichtner. After the 2021 COVID-19-related death of Feichtner, his grandsons, Owen and Nash — themselves frequent livestock exhibitors — began a funding campaign to build the new barn in John's memory. Tragically, on Sept. 28, 2021, John's wife Donna, died, as did Owen, in a car crash, on the same day. Interested parties, family members and friends throughout the Huron County community rallied to continue the building effort. The new building, estimated to cost around $1.4 million, will be a scaled-back version of the project that fair board members had originally wanted. That project would have cost more than $2.6 million and would have involved using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and possibly a loan to the Huron County Fair Board. But Huron County commissioners did not think the more costly version of the project was sustainable and possibly did not qualify for ARPA funds. The project received a boost in June when fair board members learned they would be receiving a $375,000 state grant for the new building. "It took a while," Hunker said after the ceremony. "I knew we'd get here. It was just a matter of getting here."