TUNBRIDGE — The spring thaw has come and gone and officials with the Tunbridge World’s Fair say the amount of damage to a half dozen barns and the 30-acre fairgrounds from a winter ice jam has proven to be minimal.
Fair officials in late January said they weren’t sure how the fairgrounds would look when the 4 to 5 feet of ice buildup in and around the barns melted and flowed back into the banks of the First Branch of the White River. But they look just as they should — intact, President Alan Howe said on Thursday.
“We had some damage but nothing like we had anticipated,” Howe said. “The fairgrounds look really good right now.”
The main bathroom sustained some damage, and a few toilets need replacing. Electrical repairs also were warranted and other minor things, Howe said, adding that the costs to get the fairgrounds back in order were “minimal.”
Officials held a volunteer cleanup session last weekend, and several people helped pickup trash and other debris that flooded the field from the river.
Those sessions are routine. After all, “this isn’t the first time it has happened,” Howe said of the situation.
Similar ice buildup occurred on the grounds about six or seven years ago, he said.
“These barns have withstood the test of time,” he said, adding that some are “well over 100 years” old. The fairgrounds sit in the floodplain.
The ice, which was only about two feet below the “high water” mark from the flood of 1978, which adorns the side of a barn, only recently all melted, Howe said.
Asked if there was anything officials could do to prevent a scare in the future, Howe said, “there’s not a lot we can do.”
“Mother Nature will take its course,” he said.
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.