“This is the fourth building we’ve done with CTC and they’re all very special — but I gotta tell you this is the one I’m the most proud of,” said Dean Blair, executive director of the Clark County Fairgrounds. “I would have to dub this about a $60,000 to $65,000 retail value project.”
CLARK COUNTY FAIR: Opens Friday with 'something for everyone'
The project features a new roof, new walls, flooring, electrical, benches and a performance stage. The shelter house will also be the site of CTC’s food truck, which is run by students in the culinary program.
The shelter house was a product of several community organizations coming together. Funds came from the Springfield Foundation, Clark County Commissioners, Bryce Hill, Arisfor, a coating and sealing company, Highlands Church and CTC.
A dozen students from the school’s carpentry program and about five from the electrical program put their blood, sweat and tears into making the project possible this spring.
CTC Senior Carpentry Instructor, Ric Howard said his students take a lot of pride in their work. He said they constantly take pictures during each step.
“The houses we build, the barns we build, the garages we build: They’re so proud of those,” he said. “They take their parents out, their girlfriends out and they drive by years after that and say, ‘I built that.’”
The shelter house was a transformation of the former Highlands United Church of Christ Cafeteria, which served fair-goers for 62 years before it shut its door in 2017 when the church dissolved.
RELATED: Popular church cafeteria to close after one last Clark County Fair
Betty Mougey, who helped to build the cafeteria from the ground up, passed away that same year at the age of 83. Her funeral procession even passed by the cafeteria that she called, ‘The White House.”
The cafeteria was boarded up in 2018, and at one point there was talk of tearing the building down.
Mougey’s, granddaughter Victoria Smitson said the building closing was the end of an era. She was three days old when she made her first trip there, and there was plenty of memories to follow including her husband proposing to her at the building on her birthday.
But this birthday, she’s excited for a new tradition. Hanging on one of the walls of the shelter house is the original Highlands Church Cafeteria sign.
“I’m excited to be able to take my two girls to sit in the shelter house and though they are too little to understand,” Smitson said. “Be able to share all of my memories of what that building meant to me and their grandma and great grandma and start creating new memories and traditions with me.”
The Clark County Fair opens on Friday.
62 — years Highlands Church Cafeteria had been at the fairgrounds
17 — Springfield-Clark CTC students who worked to transform the building
$60,000 — estimated cost of the project without community donations
HOW TO GO:
The Clark County Fair opens to the public on Friday, July 19.
Gates open at 8 a.m.
Admission is $6, which includes parking and all admissions to concerts and shows.
Ride tickets and wristbands are sold separately.
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