Fair to lose land

Greene's Fair Association is losing the lease on its land on Route 230 just east of Stanardsville, where the County Fair has been held for the last 15 years.
Unless a landowner with at least 40 acres to spare steps up to the plate, many groups in Greene could lose a source of revenue when the lease expires in another five years.
"Many community organizations make much of their budgets off the fair," says Ed Lumadue, vice president of the Fair Association. "The County will lose because these organizations will not be able to raise the amount of money they have in the past."
For example, the Stanardsville Volunteer Fire Department depends on its booth at the fair for between eight and 10 percent of its annual budget, according to its president Doug Clay.
Alternate sources of revenue would have to be found to replace income from their booth at the fair.
"When you're spending between $160,000 and $165,000 a year, money has to come from somewhere," Clay says.
The Fair Association, says Lumadue, has no "rainy day funds" with which to buy land.
It is still recovering from the tornado four years ago that knocked out buildings and tossed one bandstand all the way into Madison County.
"Insurance didn't cover everything. We were set back about $100,000," Lumadue says.
But the end of the current lease does not mean "the sky is falling," he emphasizes.
Fifteen years ago, the fair was located behind the William Monroe High School and had to vacate the premises to make way for the school's expansion.
At that time, the late Angus "Buddy" Eddins - a former County Board of Supervisors member and lifetime member of the Stanardsville Volunteer Fire Department - stepped up to the plate to offer his assistance and save the day.
"It was an emergency," explains Eddins' widow, Ramona. "My late husband was very community-minded. He offered the Fair a 20-year lease and first option if the land was offered for sale."
Ramona Eddins continues: "We have abided by the lease and the Fair Association has as well. We have enjoyed a good relationship. But I am now a senior citizen; my children will be inheriting the property. I do not want them bound by another long-term lease."
Eddins says she has given the Fair Association ample time to find another location.
Lumadue says the Fair Association wants to use that time wisely, and the first thing it needs to do is find another location.
"Our board members have been talking with individual land owners, but we've come up empty," says Lumadue. "We're hoping that someone will step forward and allow us to use their land for a week every year. We're looking for something fairly permanent, such as a long-term lease similar to the one we have with Eddins.
Time is of the essence, Lumadue says, because five years is not a long time when it comes to setting up a fair.
County officials say that if a location is found that requires rezoning, that process can take up to between six months and a year.
Then "we've got to establish an infrastructure," Lumadue says.
"We've got to install electricity, underground watering, poles, and fencing," he explains. "The Virginia Department of Transportation has to okay any location where 17,000 people are going to tie up traffic. If we wait four and a half years down the road to (deal with those things) it will be too much work."
If Buddy Eddins hadn't come to the fair's rescue 15 years ago, it might have ended then, says Clay.
Lumadue says he would hate to see the Fair come to an end in five years. This year was the best year ever in its history.
And "the smoothest run ever," says Eddins