A fair amount of work

LIMA — The midway at the Allen County Fairgounds appeared to be quiet Friday morning.

The rides and the vendors were all set up and ready for the evening’s opening of the Allen County Fair. Instead of hearing blaring music and chatty children, you could only hear someone banging a stake into the ground in the distance.

Instead of crowds walking up and down the midway, trucks with food deliveries occasionally meandered between the Starship 8000 ride and the food trucks parked nearby. The only consistent traffic came from the sheriff’s deputies, making their rounds on a golf cart.

If you looked a little closer, though, the Allen County Fairgrounds was a beehive of activity as it prepared for its 174th edition of the fair Friday evening. Those details make the annual event a success.

Last-minute repairs

Dee Sherer looked a bit like a mad scientist outside the Bath Wildcat Den food building. With his bushy white goatee and his magnifying goggles, he could’ve been plotting to take over the world.

In reality, the retired home remodeler mended a ripped screen near one of the exit doors, hoping it keeps the birds from flying into the enclosed dining area.

It’s a labor of love for Sherer, a Bath graduate whose three children and then their children go to Bath. He still has a sophomore in the district, he said.

There are other last-minute projects to finish. Fair employees Chris Dotson and Milton Ganser gathered up fire extinguishers to deliver around the fairgrounds around 10 a.m. Companies put the last-minute touches on their displays in the merchant’s building.

Sherer said he enjoyed watching the fairgrounds come to life Friday.

“I do enjoy it. Part of what brings me back here is it’s exciting to watch the fair blossom,” he said.

Stubborn swine

In the corner of the fairgrounds along state Route 117, Friday morning was a flurry of activity as smaller animals checked into their lodging for the next nine days. Dairy cows and steers followed up later in the day.

Ava Gossard, 16, and her brother, Cole, had their pigs in their pens by 9 a.m.

“It’s a little stressful,” said Ava, who is in her eighth year of showing pigs at the fair. She’s showing her crossbred pigs Kirby and Ziggy this year.

Cole brought one pig, a Poland China pig named Tyson, who he said was “kind of stubborn.”

Inside the food truck

Friday might’ve been the first day at the fairgrounds for some people, but it was the second for Kathy Hutchinson, who has helped at the Allen County Pork Producers food truck since 1979. The stand was there Thursday, helping feed the campers coming into the fairgrounds.

“Our first day’s helpful so we can see what might go wrong,” she quipped.

Hutchinson addresses many of the people who come by for a breakfast sausage sandwich and a coffee by name.

She started working the truck with her husband, Richard, before they married in 1983. Now they help manage the truck.

She appreciated the little things, like a breeze that took the heat away from the sausage sizzling on the flattop grill. She and her husband are there during the day most days of the fair, as it’s hard to line up volunteers except in the evenings.

They appreciate helping raise funds for scholarships and building improvements at the fairgrounds.

“You see some people that you only see during the fair each year,” Rich Hutchinson said. “We make a lot of friends out here.”

Continuing a tradition

In the nearby rabbit barn, Joy Helser, 17, quietly unloads her market rabbits onto a long stand. The fair’s Derick Smith weighs them, while Garrett Thompson completes the paperwork.

Then it’s on to the cages, where she places wood shavings before putting down its metal flooring and then carefully placing her bunnies inside. It’s her ninth year showing rabbits.

“This is the fun part,” she said as she wheeled her rabbits toward their cages. “The hard part was a few days ago when we decided which rabbits we’d show.”

Her favorite part of the fair is when she shows her rabbits in competition.

It brings back good memories for her father, Greg Helser, who brought animals to the Allen County Fair as a youth.

“I grew up here bringing dairy heifers and loved it,” he said. “We’d actually lived in Franklin County when she started showing rabbits, and this is her third year here. It’s a lot more competitive here. We really feel lucky to be at the Allen County Fair.”

What goes around

For the third year, Rick Davis was happy to be inside the merchant’s building, where he spent Friday morning setting up four different-sized train displays for the HO Model Railroaders.

It’s a labor of love for the members of the group, who eagerly share their knowledge about miniature trains and full-sized ones as well. The club has a train show every December, and it helps with the train display at the Allen County Museum. Throughout the fair, they’ll give away miniature train sets, with drawings for children ages 5 to 9 and 9 to 12.

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Reach David Trinko at 567-242-0467 or on Twitter @Lima_Trinko.