COVID squelches Home Show second year in a row
Feb. 26—ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — Organizers of the 2021 Ashtabula County Home Show have canceled the show because of the coronavirus pandemic.
It's the second year in a row that the event has been canceled, said Sue Ellen Foote, show coordinator and executive director of the Geneva Area Chamber of Commerce.
"We are planning on it for 2022, but not this year," she said. "As much as we want to do it, we want to keep everyone safe and healthy."
The show attracts around 2,500 people a year to Ashtabula Towne Square and another 300 or so people work at the show.
Last year, the Ashtabula County Health Department shut down the annual event just after it opened after receiving a complaint, Raymond Saporito, the county health commissioner, said at the time.
Saporito said the complaint was that the Home Show was in violation of an order issued by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine that no gatherings of more than 100 people take place in the state to slow the spread of COVID-19.
A record 87 exhibitors were booked for the three-day Home Show, said Bob Schultz, director of the Ashtabula County Chambers of Commerce. The exhibitors included four window companies, an Amish furniture store, heating and air conditioning companies, home builders and many repeat businesses from the 2019 show.
Ashtabula Towne Square businesses report a boom in business during the Home Show as it attracts more people to the mall, Schultz said.
The show started as the Ashtabula County Home and Flower Show decades ago, but with fewer and fewer nurseries in the area, the show slowly evolved into the Home Show.
