Buchanan County stepped back from the Buchanan County Agribusiness Expo Center board, attempting to let the effort evolve in private hands.

“By design we want to be viewed as a grass-roots effort to separate ourselves from the county, only because we want to deliver what we think the community wants to see,” said chairman Marty Grey.

Buchanan County Eastern District Commissioner Dan Hausman will be a full voting member of the 10-person board, “in his private capacity.”

County commissioners said a private board would be better able to handle sensitive corporate fundraising efforts. The county contends that the board is not a county entity and will not have to comply with open meetings and records laws.

However, they said the board would have to come back to the county for public approval of any assistance, such as county land or a county hotel/motel tax.

The board remains committed to conducting business in the open and invites the public to attend meetings and provide input, Mr. Grey said.

“We welcome the community to visit with us, bring us ideas,” Mr. Hausman said. “We want this to be a real community endeavor.”

The County Commission on Thursday formally resigned itself from the board. The commission also signed new bylaws that put board appointments in the hands of the board rather than the County Commission.

Mr. Hausman abstained from the commission’s actions Thursday, due to his interest as a board member.

Mr. Hausman has been the leading advocate for an ag/expo center — an idea that first began with community requests for a county fairgrounds. The commission has mostly handed the vision off to Mr. Hausman, who said it would be one of his top priorities for his second term in office.

The county has discussed giving county-owned land for the ag/expo center northeast of St. Joseph, near the interchange of Interstate 29 and North U.S. Highway 169.

Mr. Hausman has said the ag/expo center would not be built if it had to rely on existing county tax sources. Numerous corporate, government and nonprofit sponsors are interested, he said.

At its last meeting, the board appointed Marty Grey as chairman, Beth Carmichael as vice chairwoman, Gary Myers as secretary of the treasury and Rachel Lyle as assistant secretary of the treasury. The board was scheduled to meet Thursday night to further organize subcommittees and responsibilities.

The plan calls for two years to complete fundraising and planning, after which the facility could begin being built, said Mr. Grey and Mr. Hausman.

Joe Blumberg can be reached

at joeblumberg@npgco.com.