The Lee County Civic Center will continue to host a county fair in February and March 2024, but it will be operated by the county and a new vendor, Lee County announced Thursday morning. 

Gibsonton-based Reithoffer Shows, which operates fairs and festivals in Aiken and Ladson, South Carolina; Pensacola and Dothan, Alabama, will be the new vendor.

County Manager Dave Harner said the county’s costs for the fair will be reimbursed from the revenue generated by the event.

“Typically you enter into a contract with the vendor, and there’s a split profit on that,” Harner said. “And so those proceeds that come in, will cover the cost.”

The Southwest Florida and Lee County Fair Association Inc. canceled its 100th anniversary fair celebration and its related contracts because it will no longer be contracted by Lee County government to organize the event at the civic center, it announced Wednesday in a news release. County government confirmed the information a day later.  

Late Monday afternoon, county government added an agenda item to discuss the fair at Tuesday morning’s Board of County Commissioners meeting. The board, with Commissioners Kevin Ruane and Brian Hamman absent, voted 3-0 to drop the organization that had operated the fair for the past 27 years. Commissioner Ray Sandelli made the motion, and Commissioner Mike Greenwell seconded it with Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass following suit with his vote.  

“All of this has been in the works for a long time behind the scenes,” said Fran Crone, who had managed the fair for about a decade. “Decisions like that should have been discussed. You would think they would discuss it at a public meeting, but they didn’t want people at the meeting, so they wait until the last minute. They’ll put in the civic center update at the last minute, and the board will vote on something that won’t even be advertised. They’ve done this all the time, and no one seems to catch it but me, I guess.”  

David Outerbridge, county extension director, will be tasked with organizing a 2024 fair, Harner said.  

Harner and Greenwell spoke at a 9:45 a.m. Thursday morning news conference that was announced an hour prior. Greenwell represents District 5 and in June had his personal property in Alva, less than a mile from the fairgrounds, rezoned to build a shopping center. He began the news conference by reading a prepared statement.  

“There has been misinformation that has run that certain groups or an entity has to run the fair,” Greenwell said. “That is not true. Lee County will be running the fair. The board has always been committed to making sure that we have a 4-H program, Future Farmers of America program and a county fair, and we will have all of those. Come Feb. 24, there will be a livestock show. There will be a fair. Please, everyone come out and enjoy the fairgrounds.”  

Greenwell declined to take questions. When a question was asked of him on whether a motion was made Tuesday, Harner answered it instead from the podium.  

“Yes, they did,” Harner said. “They made a motion for us to move forward and negotiate working with the vendor.”  

Harner and staff will have a blue sheet with specific expenditures for materials that were removed from the property to ensure agricultural programs will continue, he said.  

Harner said negotiations with the incumbent fair association were severed because the county wants to go in a new direction with the civic center property.  

The civic center opened in 1978.  

“Well, I think we’ve talked about this a number of times, the condition of the facility is failing,” Harner said. “Unfortunately, and this is not a knock on anybody, unfortunately, some entities just don’t have the capacity to put that kind of money into a facility that’s 30-plus years old.  

“The county has a lot of programs in place for major maintenance to continue to maintain facilities. That’s hard to do when you’re a nonprofit organization or a volunteer organization. The buildings are in disrepair, and something has to happen to it. The place needs a revision. And it also needs to meet the needs of the community. And that’s the goal here.”