There’s an Exchange Club Fair and an Ole Brook Festival, butLincoln County does not have a true county fair.

But that may be changing soon, possibly by next year.

Lincoln County Multi-Purpose Facility Manager Quinn Jordan saidhe, the multi-purpose commission and a small team of volunteerscomprising select elected officials have been meeting for more thanone year to plan and organize a weeklong Lincoln County Fair.

“I call it a mini state fair,” Jordan said. “I want us to have agood old-timey fair, where you have canning and cooking contestsand livestock shows, where people get together and enjoy theirlocal talent and have a little fun in the meantime. We’re going todo a full-fledged county fair.”

If the fair becomes reality, Jordan said organizers have decidedto employ Mitchell Bros. Amusement to run the event. The company isheadquartered in Slidell, La., and works with the Choctaw IndianFair and the popular Neshoba County Fair.

Mitchell Bros. Amusement representatives could not be reachedfor comment.

Jordan said hopes are to have the first fair next year, eitherin the spring or fall. A fall fair would compete regionally withestablished fairs like the Mississippi State Fair, not to mentionlocal events like the Ole Brook Festival. Jordan said the LincolnCounty Fair would not compete with the Exchange Club Fair.

“If it were in the fall, it would be after the Exchange ClubFair, not before,” Jordan said. “Out of respect for what they doand the great things they do in the community. We will look at allour activities in order to place a date that will be good for thecitizens of Lincoln County.”

Multi-purpose commission chairman Dr. William Kimble said thecommission and its volunteers chose to pursue a county fair as aproject because it fits the mold of the facility’s mission to hostevents for the community.

“Every decision we make on the commission, we try to sit backand keep this one thing in mind – the purpose of that facility,” hesaid. “As we begin to plan the types of events we can put on, wethink about how it will impact the citizens of the county. Is itsomething the people want? What things can we do to touch the mostpeople? That project is one that came to the forefront first.”

Kimble said the commission has considered a fair in the past,but the facility’s new RV park – which he announced at 99 percentcompletion Monday at a meeting of the Lincoln County Board ofSupervisors – had to be completed before such large events could betaken on.

“Now that it is beginning to come to a close, we hope to pull(the fair) project back to the front burner and have it become moreof an active project,” he said.