Simple in the fact that the county owns it, but does not want to run it so they hired someone to do it for them. It's getting common for that now as it clears the county out of any "issues" anyone has with the way things are ran.
I am not sure if the woman in charge of this (the people who run the fairgrounds) was there last year, but it's clear she wants nothing to do with the hams or the hamfest. I have no idea if she has something else planned for the fairgrounds that weekend, might explain why she was only wanting to give the hamfest half the space they usually get. I just hope whatever it is that it brings in enough money to make up for the hamfest or she might be looking for work next year.
With this, well the county is getting lots of feedback from the hams as well as the businesses who are going to loose at least $500,000 for the weekend.
I hope the Shelby club is able to get the hamfest somewhere just as nice, personally I think it should be in Gaston County (on the east side of them) because Gaston is a much more populated county, is closer to I-85 and therefore 77 & 40, plus it would show that if Cleveland County didn't want the money from all the thousands of people staying there, then they might as well give it to someone who would love it :twisted:
....the above rants are mine and mine alone, I am not a resident of Cleveland County, a member of any group in Cleveland County, just an observer from the outside.