County fair board vacant seats filled
Nine Washington County Fair Board seats were filled Tuesday during the board’s annual stockholder meeting.
The seats were vacated last Thursday during a regularly scheduled meeting after nine members resigned due to differences of opinion. The newly elected board members are Chad McGowan, Lee Robinson, Dave Cowden, Randy Naser, Mark Ryburn, William McGowan, Jay Bayer, Mike Toth and Audra Brigich, according to Washington County Commissioner Larry Maggi. Nadene Gardner and Todd Richards were the two original board members who were retained.
Maggi said all nine seats were filled in an election at the stockholder meeting. Maggi said several members who previously resigned – Cowden, Naser, William McGowan and Chad McGowan – were re-elected. The others who resigned, Bruce Grice, Joan Chapman, Dick Horstman, Joseph Avolia and Jeffrey Lash, stepped aside rather than cause discord on the board, Gary Sweat, an interim attorney for the fair board, said last week.
Maggi said attendance at Tuesday’s meeting was overwhelming.
“There were more people in attendance then I’ve ever seen before,” said Maggi, who also is a fair board stockholder. “It was an important time, and stockholders showed up to let their voices be heard.”
Sweat confirmed that a new board was elected and that the board convened after the stockholder meeting, but he declined additional comment because he did not believe he was the “official spokesman for the board.”
Sweat and Washington County Fair Board office declined to release a list of names of new board members and referred the Observer-Reporter to Gardner, who did not return calls for comment. The members who resigned and were later re-elected did not return calls seeking comment.
The next scheduled fair board meeting is Dec. 5.