Talk of the Town - Whitley County

(Talk of the Town photo by Jennifer Zartman Romano) Following the Whitley County 4-H Inc. annual meeting tonight, the newly elected and re-elected board members joined the existing board members for a group photo. In row one, from left, is Kent Reese, Bill Leeuw, Cathy Heritier, Kent Kneller, Cindy Zollinger, Jon Kissinger and Chad Nix. Row two, from left, includes Rex Eiler, Brian Thornton, Adam Haegert, Bruce Johnson, Aaron McDevitt and Bob McKown.

By Jennifer Zartman Romano

As the wind blew and snow piled up outside, a large gathering of Whitley County 4-H Inc. stockholders met inside the Whitley County 4-H Center Building for their annual meeting and topping the agenda – the election and re-election of five board members including Bruce Johnson, Jon Kissinger, Bill Leeuw, Brian Thornton and Rex Eiler.

Retiring off the board were John Nagle and Tim Yagel.

Wrapping up a successful year, members of the board and directors gave overviews of their area of responsibility.

Dave Rupley shared that this year, the Whitley County 4-H Auction raised $385,379, making it one of the top auctions in the state.

“I thought we had a very good auction,” Rupley said.

This year, the auction began at 10 a.m. and finished at 7:25 p.m. Rupley was excited because this year’s auction brought in 200 new buyers and the average cost paid per animal was $367.10.

“That’s what the buyers paid to promote these kids,” Rupley said. “I think we’ve got a tremendous community here.”

Rupley added that the bank has now closed out the auction and all checks have been cashed.

“We did have some great participation,” Dave Addison said. He remarked that some of the top non-animal projects this year included photography, foods and bowling. Next year will bring some new projects for youths to participate in: sports fishing and a health project.

“The hospital has already agreed to be a resource for the health project,” Addison added.

Treasurer Kent Reese shared a financial report for 4-H Inc. “We’re down slightly,” he said, citing increased utility costs – expenses he said those in the stockholders would be able to relate to in their own lives.

A balance of $53,664 is currently in the unrestricted fund and $31,849 is in the building fund.

At fair time, Reese related that after a few slow revenue-generating days, he was worried.

“I was walking around pretty nervous,” he said. “We were down about $20,000 from 2007.”

As luck would have it, things changed for the better.

“If you remember, we had a weather change,” Reese said. “When it got cooler, people started to spend money.” By the end of Wednesday of fair week, they were on an upward trend. “By the time the fair was over, we were up over $200 over last year.”

Reese said that sales of pizza, bratwurst and entertainment were down. In fact, the sale of event passes was down $4,000. But, popcorn revenue was up.

In the end, the fair revenue was down $2500 over prior years.

“All in all, we had a good fair, a good year,” Reese stated.

At the State Fair, results were also favorable according to local state fair board representative Craig Sherbahn. Sherbahn said the Indiana State Fair made close to $1 million and will go down as one of the best fairs in history.

Board president Bill Leeuw, after personally thanking volunteers, fellow board members and staff, talked about ways he hopes 4-H can tap into time and talent.

“In 2009, I’d like us all to think how we could use our time and talent to help the fairgrounds,” Leeuw said, “to help make it better.”