Workers at the Allen County Fairgrounds put up signage Thursaday outside the fair’s midway restroom building advertising new accessibility upgrades.
Jacob Espinosa | The Lima News
LIMA — The Allen County Fairgrounds are the latest among area fairgrounds to introduce improved accessibility.
Troy Elwer, operations manager for the fairgrounds, said the fair was able to upgrade the men’s and women’s restroom facilities through a grant from the American Rescue Plan to the county at Thursday’s ribbon cutting for the midway restrooms.
“We couldn’t be more grateful for the support and generosity given by the Allen County Board of Developmental Disabilities,” he said. “The grant opportunity that they helped us out with allowed us to install two universal changing tables at the midway restrooms, as well as handicap push-button door openers on all of the doors at the facility and anti-slip epoxy flooring across the fairgrounds.”
The Auglaize County Fairgrounds introduced the universal changing tables in a restroom facility in June (bit.ly/3YNCHhY), but these upgrades are the first of their kind in Allen County. It’s all part of a larger initiative called Changing Spaces Ohio.
“I think it’s wonderful to see other fairs following the same M.O. around the theme of accessibility,” Elwer said. “I travel to other fairs all the time to see how they’re carrying out their operations and how their setup goes, and you don’t always see much of this. It’s nice that the trend has started to turn a little bit, and fairs like us and Auglaize are really getting on board to make these facilities completely accessible.”
The board received $584,000 from the act and has already partnered with other businesses and non-profits to continue increasing accessibility throughout the county.
“It actually didn’t take that long to install them, just a week to get the tables in and the doors operational,” Elwer said. “The longer process was waiting on the material to arrive, but we’re just grateful they arrived in time to showcase it and allow it to be used for the fairgoers this year. You want the fair to be enjoyable for everybody no matter who they are and this obviously helps make it easier and more accessible for those with disabilities.”
The Allen County Fair starts Friday, Aug. 16 and runs through Aug. 24.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
