GREENFIELD — Cleanup is underway at the Franklin County Fairgrounds after the storm that downed trees and power lines across the county Wednesday evening caused an estimated $50,000 in damage to trees and property at the fairgrounds.
“It was already a very tough year,” said Mike Nelson, president of the Franklin County Agricultural Society, which oversees the fairgrounds on Wisdom Way. “And this added some additional challenge to try to navigate a tough fiscal year.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the agricultural society was forced to cancel the annual Franklin County Fair, typically held in September at the fairgrounds.
Nelson said three trees were completely uprooted on the grounds, three telephone poles snapped in half, and in addition to minor damage to several buildings, a few windows were blown from the top of the Roundhouse.
“The biggest thing that’s probably most obvious to people — besides the giant trees and the telephones leaning over — is the information booth got completely flipped over and smashed,” he said. “It’s a total loss, for sure. We’re in the process of trying to salvage any materials out of it … so we can build a new one.”
Nelson estimated the cost of the information booth to be about $25,000, and damage to the telephone poles and electrical system to be about $10,000.
“Unfortunately, all of the electrical poles and wires are all privately owned, so they’re our responsibility,” Nelson said. “We actually have to get the telephones and replace them ourselves and have an electrician do all the wiring.”
Tree cleanup is not cheap, he added, acknowledging his appreciation for the handful of volunteers on the ground Thursday morning to help with the cleanup.
“The fact that these people are here volunteering their time and equipment — I can’t even think of a great enough adjective of appreciation.”
The Franklin County Agricultural Society has property insurance, Nelson said, but after consulting with the adjuster Thursday afternoon, it is unlikely the information booth will be covered, nor the cost of tree cleanup. He said it’s possible insurance will cover some of the electrical work and poles that need replacing.
Nelson said after seeing the damage to the fairgrounds Wednesday night, he reached out to longtime friend of the fairgrounds Robert Campbell — known locally as disc jockey “Bobby C” — asking if he might be able to get the word out about the damage to the grounds and the need for financial assistance.
“No surprise, he very, very quickly said yes,” Nelson said.
Campbell said when Nelson called, he told him he’d gladly “take the task” of setting up a fundraising page.
“They have always given us a wonderful fair,” Campbell said. “Why can’t we step up to give them a couple of nickels to clean it up, so next year … they’re not sitting in a situation where their finances are screwed?”
As of 5 p.m. on Friday, 48 donors had raised nearly $2,500 through a GoFundMe page at bit.ly/36MxZGe organized by Campbell on Wednesday night.
“All help we can get is incredibly appreciated,” Nelson said. “Like every other nonprofit and business in our community, it’s been an extremely hard year anyway because of the coronavirus.”
Although there is still cleanup to be done, Nelson said the tag sale event planned for Saturday morning is still on as scheduled.
“After (Friday), we’ll have the fairgrounds cleaned up to a point where we can welcome guests back on, with the exception of on the infield, where those lines will be down for an extended period of time.”
The tag sale, which is scheduled to take place from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Youth Hall, will be an “abbreviated” version of last year’s community-wide tag sale, which welcomed community members to bring items to sell for themselves.
“That’s been put on hold until next year,” he clarified.
Instead, this year, all items have been donated by members of the board of directors or the community as part of a fundraiser-style tag sale for the fairgrounds.
Additionally, the All Things Maple food truck of Shelburne Falls will sell maple fried dough from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“More than ever we’ll be encouraging folks to come out and … browse around and see if there’s any items of interest for them to purchase,” Nelson said. “All proceeds go toward preservation (of the fairgrounds) and cleanup efforts.”