GREEN COVE SPRINGS – When Tasha Hyder arrived at the Clay County Fair Association office on March 12, she was defiantly certain the county fair would proceed as planned with a grand opening on April 2.

By the time went home, her eyes were puffy from crying and there was a defeated quietness in her voice.

As fear of the coronavirus spread, schedules crumbled like a house of cards, and the widespread panic quickly enveloped the Clay County Agriculture Fair.

For the first time in 34 years, all shows, rides and exhibits will skip their annual trip to the Clay County Fairgrounds this year. The sign in front of the fairgrounds already is counting down the days to next year’s event, which is scheduled to start on April 1.

“What’s frustrating is we know we’re disappointing a lot of people,” Hyder said. “We’re disappointing our volunteers. We’re disappointing the kids in FFA and 4-H. Their hearts are just broken. This impacts so many people in this community. It’s gut-wrenching.

“It was a hard decision, but it was an easy decision. When you think about the community we serve, over 50% of our people are elderly who are prone to catching this virus. We’re a family affair. How can we consider ourselves a family affair if we continued this event and one of our people gets sick and passes away with it? That wouldn’t be a responsible event. When you put that into perspective, it really was an easy decision.”

Hyder said her office is working to re-schedule the agriculture and livestock exhibits. She also said those who bought advance tickets with a credit card will automatically receive a refund back onto their card. Those who paid cash should fill out a form on the fair’s website, claycountyfair.org.

There were signs of a pending implosion of local events when Hyder learned on March 18 the livestock show and rodeo in Houston had been canceled. Her telephone started ringing here immediately from concerned residents. She calmly reassured there were no plans to cancel this year’s fair.

A day later, she was in tears.

“That’s how quickly things changed,” she said.

The loss of the 10-day event will create a wave of economic losses for the rest of the county. In addition to money lost and not earned at the fairgrounds, local restaurants and hotels will feel the sting of empty rooms, Clay County Director of Tourism and Film Development Kimberly Morgan said.

“It’s a tremendous loss,” she said. “No. 1, from a quality of life perspective, it’s sad. I’m sure it was a hard announcement for them to make.

“On the tourism side, it will have a huge economic impact. We won’t have those dollars floating around the county. I think I’ve cried about 10 times, too. I feel bad, not only for the event planners, but for the small businesses who relied on those visitors walking through their doors.”

Hyder said county emergency management service manager John Ward and Clay County Health Department Administrator Heather Huffman were part of an emergency meeting among fair board directors on March 12. It quickly became clear there was only one acceptable response.

“We were 21 days away from the fair. We had to make some decisions,” Hyder said. “We have people traveling from all over the place. We couldn’t sit and wait. We’re taking a huge hit. As of now, we’re up to about $500,000 that we’re losing. We’re a nonprofit organization. That’s a huge hit. The closer we got to the event, the more money we could have lost. That’s a financial decision, not a safety one. But it does play a roll. We had to stop the bleeding.

“We just couldn’t continue the fair knowing we would be at fault. We had our protocols; we had our policies, cleaning schedules. We were ready to go with the recommended advice. But we just couldn’t.”

Another factor was fair volunteers. Many are older and fall into the targeted group who are more likely to suffer the worst symptoms, including death.

“Fifty-percent of our volunteers are over the age of 60. We started seeing them cancel,” she said. “At that point, would it be safe for us to continue our fair if we don’t know if we have enough manpower to put on a safe event? We are a volunteer-based event.”

Hyder said she soon will get started with next year’s fair. But for now, her emotions are empty.

“It’s been like a funeral around here,” she said. “We’re a staple of the community. I don’t get speechless, but I really don’t have words to describe how we’re feeling.”