SCRANTON -- Lackawanna County has a lot of things, but it has never had a county fair.
That is a fact that has bothered some people in the county commissioners' office, so the commissioners have formed a committee that may eventually form a fair.
As far as anyone can tell, in its nearly 140-year history, Lackawanna County has not had its own fair.
That committee will spend the next year putting together the logistics of a fair that committee members hope can compete with longstanding fairs in nearby counties.
Lackawanna County brought some of its best logistics people and event planners to the table forming the county's fair committee. The goal is to craft a fair all Lackawanna County's own.
"As long as the money is spent from the sponsors and not a push on taxpayers, that's what I think is important to people around here, especially," said committee member Jess Meoni.
The fair committee is just the first step. Members will meet monthly for a year, finding answers to all the unanswered questions.
"We don't want to compete with other fairs, obviously, that have been around for over 100 years, so we want to make sure that we have the timing and the location, probably the most important at this point," said committee member Chris DiMatteo.
The first thing the committee will have to tackle is "where," then "who." But farmers in Lackawanna County say they're already on board.
"Now, there's so few of us left that I think people just think things appear at the store magically without where they come from or anything," said Paul Manning.
Manning says he can count the county's dairy farmers on one hand nowadays and believes a fair could help Lackawanna County's agriculture industry.
Manning's Farm near Clarks Summit would be interested in selling ice cream out of its mobile operation should the Lackawanna County Fair become a reality.
"I think there's far more positives than negatives that you can think about, so I think if the people from the county would support it, I think it could be a good idea," Manning said.
Lackawanna County commissioners hope that after a year's worth of preparations, Lackawanna County could have a fair sometime in 2018.
Some new fair committee members though, think that may be a little too ambitious.
