Commission sets new rental rates for 4-H Building
- Charlene Sims, Journal staff
- Jul 4
- 4 min read
By Charlene Sims, Journal staff
MOUND CITY - On Monday, June 29, after talking about issues with the 4-H Building at the Linn County Fairgrounds for months, another issue was taken care of – the contract for people who rent the building. Over the past several months, new appliances have been purchased for the kitchen and the heating and cooling units have been repaired. The only question left that may still be unanswered is who should own the building.
Commission Chair Alison Hamilton read off the main points of the new contract which only covers the building, not the grounds around the building.
The new rental rates are:
No cost for clubs, extension, county government units, or for youth educational groups.
$150 per day for non-profit organizations or Linn County residents.
$375 per day for commercial use.
Other points of the contract include:
All checks will be made payable to the Linn County Treasurer.
Reservations will be approved through the Marais des Cygnes Extension Office.
No alcohol allowed in or around the building. Hamilton said she guessed that meant the front of the building.
Discussion was held on the cleaning when Commissioner Jim Johnson asked, “As far as the cleaning, who do we pay on the cleaning of this? Did the 4-H Council get some money to clean it?”
Hamilton said that had been the arrangement in the past, but she did not know when that started.
Ware said that she believed the 4-H organization is no longer going to clean.
Ware continued, “We need to follow up with Abbie (Powell with the Marais des Cygnes Extension Service) regarding that, but they do not have the manpower or the availability, I guess, to come in and do the cleaning.
"So prior to that I believe it was Danny Nation, if I remember correctly, that did that. But I’m just passing on what I believe is accurate information that the cleaning will no longer be done. If you give me a second I will send a message to Abby and confirm.”
Johnson asked whether cleaning was required on the contract.
Hamilton answered, “Yeah, it’s right here. Cleaning and closing checklist. Return table and chairs to their proper place. Everything’s on there but even after that, we were paying $150 to the 4-H Council for someone to come in there and clean.”
Ware will email the contract to Powell and moving forward, starting Monday, July 6, the new amounts will apply to those new applications for use of the buildig.
Hamilton said that if no one was cleaning the building from 4-H, the commission will need to find someone to go into the building, maybe from the county’s public works department and clean the building or the county needs to hire someone from outside.
Hamilton asked Ware to see if the commission could have a calendar with the rentals.
The concerns about the rental fee and the ownership of the 4-H building became evident in February 2026, when the commissioners talked about having the Linn County Fair Board take over the 4-H building. That was triggered by repairs that needed to be made to the heating units and new equipment needed in the kitchen.
Other concerns were that the building rental was handled by the extension office and the commission did not know the schedule for the building.
A meeting on Feb. 9 with Powell and Linn County Public Works Director Jesse Walton to discuss the 4-H building, clarified that the extension office books the building and takes the money from the rental to the Linn County Treasurer’s office.
Discussion was also held about the ownership of the 4-H building. Powell said that at an extension board meeting it was determined that the extension budget could not take the building on at this time. Powell said that in both Miami and Bourbon counties the fair boards owned their 4-H buildings.
Replacement equipment for the kitchen was also discussed with Powell at that February meeting. Hamilton was concerned that the commission would replace the appliances and they would not be what the extension thought was needed.
The commissioners agreed to have the fair board come in to talk about the 4-H building.
At the March 9 meeting, Linn County Fair Association representatives met with the commissioners about who should own the 4-H building. At the time, the commissioners were willing to make the repairs to the heating units and kitchen before turning over the building.
Association representative Roger Carbon told the commissioners, “In my opinion, you own the building yourself, and you’re the ones that are going to have to come up with some money no matter what. Whether who’s doing anything. It would seem to me like we got 30-some guys on our board. But three people make a lot better decisions than 33. So, I think in the best interest for the county and for taxpaying and for everything else, I think you people need to retain the decision-making as far as working on it.
“You can hire somebody to go down there. Danny Nation goes down and does a lot of things in the 4-H building, you know, fixing plumbing and this and that. So it seemed to me like you need to keep control of it since you’re in control of the money. And we get things done that sometimes it’s a little hairy. So, I think it needs to stay that way.”
Fair board member Charley Johnson said they could hardly pay the insurance bill on the multi-purpose building that the county built and then turned over to the fair board. But they will try to do whatever they can to try to cooperate both ways but they can’t really take over there.
After the fair board members left the March meeting, the commissioners approved a motion in favor of Walton getting bids for the kitchen to be redone, for repairs or replacement needed for the heating and cooling in that building and for the county HVAC maintenance contract.
In May the commissioners voted to replace both heat exchangers, and in June they approved purchasing a new stove and fryer for the kitchen.
Comments