Fairgrounds’ Main Exhibit Hall is coming down completely before this year’s fair

The Fairground’s Main Exhibit Hall will be taken down, Washington County announced today on their website:

The Washington County Board of Commissioners approved a plan today to close and remove the 66-year-old Main Exhibit Hall on the fairgrounds in Hillsboro due to a “severe life safety hazard” identified in a recent structural report by Scott Edwards Architecture. The structural issues included concerns about each building’s risk of losing stability during a significant earthquake, snow event, windstorm or, in the case of the Main Exhibit Hall, even holding up its own roof.

The idea is for the building to be completely gone before the fair later this year, which the county website implies will still happen in Hillsboro this year.

A few other buildings were also deemed unsafe by the structural report: the Milking Parlor, Sheep Barn and restrooms near the livestock area. Staff will either make repairs or “consider other options,” which presumably means those buildings could come down as well.

Hillsboro City Council recently approved an increased hotel tax, the proceeds of which will go toward building a planned Event Center, construction for which should begin later this year.