You have to have a schedule for the entire year because otherwise stuff get booked. >> 2026. How are y'all forgot something Get one door out. [Music]
second. Thank you. information. Now, some people that >> I would love to like sit down with you at some point without I'll let you know. Is he also an act teacher?
>> No, he teacher. Okay. >> FS. If I go anywhere now, I'm losing 20 years. >> Hey everybody, I can get y'all's attention. We're going to call this meeting to order tonight. Um, like always, I'd like to start this
meeting off with a word of prayer. Mr. Brad, would you mind to pray? Grac, we just thank you. We just thank you for your grace, your mercy, and your love, Lord. We just most of all thank you for what you did for us on the cross, paying sin when we couldn't pay it no other
way, Lord. We thank you for that. We just pray Lord as we go through this meeting that we're cordial to one another Lord that we keep the same interest at heart of our community. The decisions that we make we make community most of all Lord that we just praise and honor you in everything that we do in
Jesus name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. Thank you. with that. Uh Harley sent out the meeting minutes last >> Friday. >> Friday. Um I just like to get a motion about
everybody accepted the minutes on the 24th and and the 7th special meeting that we had. >> I make a motion that we accept the minutes for the September 24th and October 7th meeting. >> Second. All in favor that the minutes were
accepted. Any oppose? On the next agenda here, um, Miss Harley Hutchinson >> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. >> Thank you, Mr. Um, moving on with that. Um, item number
three on the agenda. Miss Harley Hudson's been about a week now, a little over a week in the office. I think she's making some pretty good strides. I'm going to let her give us an update on what she's been doing in her time. Miss Harley,
>> thank you. Um, so I started last Monday as your fairgrounds manager. It has been a very busy but exciting first week. I have been getting to know the community, learning about the fair's many moving parts, and trying to jump in wherever I
can while prioritizing the 2026 fair and its much needed improvement. I was happy to attend the fair subcommittee meeting where we talked about the entertainment lineup and this year's fair theme. I've also met with public works, the fire chief and his team, the sheriff's
office, and our county commissioners. Everyone has been very welcoming and supportive as we move into this new chapter. Thank you. Last week, I visited the Keystone Heights and the Stark Rotary meetings. I attended the legislative delegation that was here, and I got to sit in on the TDC
board meeting. I am planning to submit an application for the TDC's marketing grant ahead of their November meeting, and I will keep you posted once their decision is made. Also, last week I got to take an in-depth tour of the fairgrounds and was caught up to speed on the many ideas and
offers of support our community has for the improvement of the Ecoin facility. The recent history of the organization required an explanation from our sheriff of the issues, investigations, and resolutions that the fair association dealt with in previous months. Tomorrow I'll be speaking at the Stark Rotary and
meeting with the Telegraph to go over plans for the fair book and advertise to talk about how we can better accommodate our vendors and visitors during the fair events and build a good working partnership. I have also connected with our Midway vendor, Dreamland Amusements,
and I'm happy to share that they've agreed to match our advertising dollars up to 10,000. That is an incredible opportunity to double our marketing impact. They'll also be sending us some great promotional material soon that showcases their rides and the attractions they'll bring, which we can
use across advertising and social media. I just got access to the fair's website and have started cleaning up the outdated information soon. It will better reflect our new leadership and the 2026 fair date. So, be on the lookout for a fresher, updated look
online. Um, I've also been to the bank. I'm working with the county manager's office to make sure that our finances are organized and up to date. One of my next priorities is to create a clear plan for sponsorship dollars for both the fair and the equestrian thing moving forward.
I learned that the Florida sales taxes were behind this past week. So, I contacted the department of revenue. We are no longer going to be sent to collections. Um, so I will be working on that in the coming week. On the compliance side, I've been in touch with several representatives from the
Department of Ag who are helping us get our permits and documentation in order so that we're fully up to date with 616 in time for the fair. Next week, I'm excited about this. I am heading to the Klay County Fairgrounds to meet with Miss Tasha Haidider and learn from their
team and how they operate. I hope to learn what works well for them, how they manage their fair, and how they have built such a successful schedule of year-round events. Thank you. >> Did you mention the second? >> Yes, that is the marketing grant that
I'm applying for. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Harley. Um, real quick, is there any questions for Miss Harley on anything she's doing or like to see her do in the coming weeks? I'd like to see because it's actually board of law, but we need to start
getting a financial report every meeting. Okay. From the treasur or whoever's involved. Uh I just think it's important that we know where we are financially. >> As do I. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, we spoke on that. Uh getting that in order, Mr. Shaw, for the
coming meetings. >> Not hard to keep up with right now, just to let you Uh, thank you though. Uh, moving on to the next agenda item number four. I see Miss Joanna slipped in here. Uh, would you like to give us an update on the fair
committee on how they're doing or >> They're doing great. I thought she took notes, so I didn't bring my notes, so I apologize. >> Oh, I apologize, too. I um I did take notes on the fair theme. >> Okay. So, that's the big
I was gonna say I'm just so proud to not the um but we discuss can host contests and different kinds of information and so the conversation was those um handwritten out uh rules
information detail and so I don't know if that needs to come to the board as a as a voting But the main thing that we talked about too was the schedule >> and trying to get a really good idea of all the days that are available, what's already pre- needed for the animals, and
then what we need to do for entertainment. We talked about we need to reach out to some board members to see um what their involvement is and then we need to get on the applications for entertainment as well as the theme. So, we did have quite a bit of conversation. She got the notes. I'm
going to turn it back over to you. Okay, thank you. >> Miss Joanna is being a little modest. Me and actually Harley sat in on that meeting. Just to give y'all some update, they got an egg contest. They're looking at doing um a mullet contest, mullet
hair contest. They're looking at uh >> start. >> Oh, yeah. >> Brad said he's going to grow his out. Uh looking at a whip popping contest with Mr. Wayne Wall. um thinking about doing that in the arena itself one
night. And uh one of the really neat things we're looking at doing is doing a recyclable um pallet decorating contest that we can display around the fair grounds themselves. Um other fairs I've seen do it where they decorate pallets and they make a contest out of it. So that's few
of the things that they're looking at doing. I'm really impressed with the committee, the work that they're putting in. They're putting together a uh calendar of events right now. So, uh, a lot of exciting things are happening under that. One of the biggest things that we probably brought out of that
meeting is we're needing to get this theme named of the fair for this year. This will help us in our advertising and uh, just an allaround um, we we need to have this put in place. >> Before we vote on it, you want to ask
Mr. Roxan or Mis if they got anything to add that we missed? I mean, I know that there's been two or three talking about the subcommittee, but or anybody else for that matter that's on that subcommittee. >> I think uh one of the big things that we've got shared out to the subcommittee
and Carly Nepal is a calendar breaking out each day right now and we're all starting to plug notes, things like that on it, like the ribbon cutting. Hey, we need the big ribbon. Where are we going to get that? um start plugging in one big thing to know gospel reaching out to churches on Sundays um bringing in
church groups things like that saying look at some of those things so the shared calendar so if you know of something please let us know so plug it on that calendar so it doesn't get lost at this point >> and one of the things I kind of stressed to the committee itself just to let
everybody know is even though we're an agricultural fair and I feel like the swine and the steers and the goat shows are really good in place that we've got to think about the other people that comes to the fair, not just the agricultural animal side of it.
So, you know, we're having to think just outside, not just the nights of steer show and the swine shows, but what are we going to do for the other nights and people that ain't coming for that. So, we are having to think about all venues and uh aspects of the fair.
>> And that's why we were kind of talking about we're going to need some applications. So if there is entertainment groups that we that we don't know about, we want to open it up to the community. We want the community to know we have five hours on a Wednesday. Maybe we can split that into
five events for five churches or community events or um Boy Scouts or Girl Scout. I mean different things. So, we need to do a little bit of work only in the fact of we need to know what we have to fiddle and then we need to do some probably applications and some media marketing to send it out to the
community because there's going to be things that we haven't even thought about that the community wants us to do. >> And once again, anybody on the board feel free to give us, you know, ideas or your thoughts on anything that we might be thinking. I'm not just holding the committee itself to come up with all this. So, >> did Michael Peter ever get with you
about any of the entertainment that he had spoken to us about? Haven't we all? Not yet. >> So, with that being said, like I said, I think it's real important for us to go ahead and establish a theme name for the fair for the 2026 year.
When we sent out the email, we asked for anybody that had any other ideas to email them. And I think Harley said nothing come about. The only point um suggested when we talk about the fair theme was that I believe in 2020 they had a theme that was associated with
roots but it was called country roots. >> I gotcha. As of right now we've got two names. One would be the heart of Bradford strengthening our roots to grow the future. The second name or idea was living the
dream, fair fun and blue ribbon dreams. Um, like I said, those are the two names that we come out of the committee meeting with. Is there anybody else has anything while we're here tonight? If not, I would like to um move forward
with us voting on one of the two names. >> I say the first one. All right. The first one we'll we'll I'm sorry. >> I was say let's just make a motion and then we'll vote on individually. >> Get the most votes that work. >> So if we have a motion to to
>> vote on these names or is there anything else out there? Another names y'all want to think about? >> Second motion. Pete first. >> All in favor of voting on these names. Okay. Name number one once again the
first one was the heart of Bradford. Strengthening our roots to grow the future. Name number two was living the dream. Fair fun and blue ribbon dreams. We're gonna get a vote. >> You say in favor
>> all in favor of name number one. I think it's anonymous. >> That's 15. >> I don't think >> No, she's not a voting member. >> All right. Any opposed to the first one?
>> No. Who? >> Do we have >> Oh, just making sure there's no opposed now. Any on the any votes on the second one? >> Zero. So, all in favor of the heart of Bradford, strengthening our roots to grow the future is going to be our theme
for the 2026 fairgrounds. Thank y'all for that one. Is there anything else that y'all want to cover for the theme or excuse me for the fair committee or anything like that? Is everything good on that? I'll fix move to the next agenda item.
>> We will be looking for sponsorships for the things that the fair committee will be hosting the fun the things that you're talking about. We do want to do like giveaways to whoever wins the the contests. So, we will be probably in the
next meeting or two through your leadership um talking about board members talking to people about sponsorship and whether that's a gift bag, whether that's a gift certificate to a restaurant, whatever it may be in the future. I just want to put it out there because the events that we're
talking about doing is our events. It's not the Midway contractor events. And so, there's a lot, you know, if you don't know how the business works, you can get kind of We've already contracted with somebody. Why are we doing stuff? We want to do it because as a committee,
so we will need to do some sponsorship. And so probably in the next couple weeks, we probably need to get a good list that says this will be handled by this vendor and this will be handled by us. Just so everybody understands we are asking for money where they go. >> Yeah, we are in the process Harley is to
set up a meeting with the midi the uh midway committee dreamland to let's get all this stuff narrowed out on that as well as Mr. Shaw's point about the financial side. We're fixing to set up the account so we can know what we're taking in for the fair itself and the
equestrian part of it when we start taking in donations and sponsorships too so we can keep track of that and keep everybody posted where the money's coming and going as well. Besides our subcommittee that we do, I would suggest my suggestion only is that we need to
have some individuals or five individuals from this u board to work out the plan of vendor spaces, >> how many they have, where they located, and all that because people will start
asking >> where they're at, what they cost, and stuff like that. And I think all of us should be able to talk and yeah explain to it to someone. >> A lot of businesses budgets start they start budgeting now for 26 they need to
account for that money. >> No, I agree. And there there's still a lot of moving sp uh parts to this. And one of the things is is we're scheduled to meet with the the church to let them aware because I feel like they've been real good with us all the way around and
we're trying to work with them due diligence about what spaces we're needing to take, where we got to put them and stuff like that. So I do agree with the space allocations. Um we just need to move get some pieces moving in that direction as well. Miss Roxan, is there a layout somewhere of building
one, two, or three? You know, because >> they they just done it. Different ones did it. Linda Lee done it one year. She done it several years. She would go in and pick out because some people like to use larger areas than what a 10 by 10,
but then that that goes with the price and how many you can get in there >> and where it's located because there are some prime spots that people want. But we go back also where we agreed that we had some that was non for sale people's
not advertised like the schools in three and all that. >> Um she I believe has already got um Caitlyn has already got that kind of laid out. >> Can we can we not put three or four people together that's familiar with the buildings and get draw a layout and then
we can decide? >> I'm going I'm going to donate a tape measure to Harley and she can go down there and start measuring spots. There's enough of us that have done >> before that we can walk you through. >> Good to know. And I did find Did you say
Linda >> used to put them together? Okay. So, I did find um another old binder today. I've been going through lots of boxes. >> Lots and lots of boxes. But I did find another old binder today with some layouts of previous vendor spaces.
>> And that's they need to be looked over >> coming in. So, with people letting you know If there's one, two, three people that get that information, then it y'all work together >> to uh lay it out because you might have to change. There's there's things that
you might have to change at the last minute, which should be okay, but there are prime places that people have in the past, they always want it that same spot or whatever. >> I feel like we need to come before this board once that's worked out. >> Yeah.
>> Um with a suggested sheet um to vote on um just like you know uh what's it called cook >> in the kitchen. Yeah, the >> the little pink >> auxiliary
>> how much you know that was a huge conversation last year was how much the auxiliary had to pay >> and so I feel like those were things that we can get a layout and maybe print it out here for everybody to look at how it's laid out and a suggested price
range for each one of those spots after educating ourselves >> and then this board can vote on the price and then what Mr. Michelle just said or maybe it was Miss Lisa, I can't remember. But as the community ask us questions because they will >> then we'll be knowledgeable about you
know how much they're paying, how much they're paying for this spot and why and keep a lot of that rub me down. Just my opinion. And one other thing is ask the midway company too if they are going to allow like outside vendors, say food
truck vendors that might want to come in and set up on the midway. I don't know what hard and fast rules they might have against that, but I do know a couple people have asked me about, you know, that have food trucks like, "Hey, can we
>> and I'm like, I don't know yet. I'm hoping, you know, they'll be able to do it and figure out a price. >> If my recollection, if I remember right, they handle all the food on the midway, >> do they? >> And they take all the funds from the food on the midway. That's their part of their profit sales.
>> Okay. >> Um, now we can do outside. >> Well, that's what I was thinking. Are we going to allow that? And if if so, we need to figure out a price for those people and I guess application process. And like the other vendors, um, There's
a guy that does hats and t-shirts. He just asked me. He comes from Clay County. He said, "We come set up for the week and sell hats and t-shirts." >> He's like, "Give me a price." So, thinking about things like that, too. >> Just in the small conversations we had
with them, >> I'd be very careful of taking money from them. So, if they make their money off the food, >> Exactly. >> Um, I I would be I would tread lightly of taking anything away from them where they make profit. >> Right. because we want them to come back and we want we'd like to be able to negotiate
the contract more in our behalf in the future. So, I would just be real careful about anything that takes away from their profit. >> Yeah, >> just my opinion. >> But to your point though, once we set up the boundaries of what is the midway and what is the other fairgrounds that we
could set up additional food trucks, vendors like that, we will establish that. >> But you can still have those in the building. >> You know what I mean? in the inside in the inside of the building. They don't have to be out on the >> That just depends on >> you could put them in building too.
>> Your Midway vendors may have a contract prohibition in their agreement. So, >> because I know they do have people because a couple people that work for that vendor, the Midway vendor said they want to be here. So, whether it's selling lemonade, frozen lemonade, whatever, they have said that. So,
>> well, like I said earlier, I don't want to get too far off in the weeds of this right now because we are going to meet with the midway and we those are questions we'll definitely get ironed out to get this negotiated on that. >> Can I just share one thing? Oh, sorry. Okay. Question. Are we gonna, you know,
when Harley have the layout, whatever.