Horse barn at Greene County Fairgrounds under repair
Photo courtesy of Greene County
High winds stripped the roof from these stalls at Greene County Fairgrounds.
Courtesy of Greene County
Damage to the roof of a barn at Greene County Fairgrounds
The racehorse barn at the Greene County Fairgrounds is being repaired after a windstorm last month rolled the roof off.
The wind Feb. 25 rolled the metal roof up the barn, causing damage that may not be fully repaired until May, according to Greene County Chief Clerk Jeff Marshall.
“It literally took about a quarter of the roof off the racehorse barn and rolled it up a little ways,” he said.
On Tuesday, an engineer and architect looked at the damage and determined the barn is structurally sound and that there was no damage to the rafters, Marshall said. The next day, county maintenance workers unrolled the roof and reattached it.
“It’s just a temporary fix,” Marshall said.
He said the county expects to hear options from the engineer on a more permanent fix by the end of the month. Then the county will go through a public bidding process for the work, which will take about a month.
“Hopefully, we’ll be getting the work done by the end of May, early June,” he said.
The county is working through its storm insurance company for the repairs, he said.
During a recent commissioners meeting, Leona Freeman of Franklin Township voiced concerns that the county can be doing more to keep the horse barn cleaner and safer. She’s rented a stall for her horse since last summer.
She said the stalls need new wood and that unrented stalls should be cleaned out more regularly. She said that she suspects more people would rent stalls there, if they were cleaned up better.
“They don’t want to mess with the upkeep,” she said in an interview Friday. “If you have a responsibility, you should take care of it.”
Freeman suggested that if the county doesn’t have enough workers to maintain the barns, they could use inmates to help with cleaning and minor repairs.
“Nobody expects brand new, but fix what’s broken,” she said.
Freeman also was concerned that the county workers might have rolled the roof back down while horses were inside the barn.
“The noise would have flipped those horses out,” she said.
Marshall said the horses were moved out of the side of the barn where the damage was. He also said the horses were in the barn during the storm, when the damage first occurred. Freeman said none of the horses was injured.
“It all missed the horses, thank God,” she said.
Marshall said the county has three to four fairgrounds employees who work in the barns, but that “they aren’t necessarily horse people.”
He said people who rent a horse stall are responsible for cleaning out their stalls. He said when some of the boards become aged or damaged from horses nibbling on them, the county workers try to keep up with repairs.
“I don’t think there’s anything unsafe in the barn,” he said. “If someone has an issue, they need to report it to the office.”
That way, he said, the county can keep track of those concerns and follow through with the appropriate repairs.