Randolph County Equine and Ag Center in foreclosure
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The Randolph County Equine and Agricultural Center is in foreclosure.
The Randolph County Equine and Ag Center is in foreclosure.
The center that sits off of Highway 431 just south of Wedowee has had a checkered past, with very few events taking place there over the past several years.
The notice of foreclosure came last week, stating that the association in charge of the center was in default on its loan from the USDA, a loan that began on March 23, 2018. In keeping with foreclosure law the facility is scheduled to be auctioned off on the Randolph County courthouse steps August 11.
The Randolph County Commission had been legally bound to provide funding to the Randolph County Equine and Agricultural Association from the county’s tobacco tax revenue. But in February of 2025 a significant change was made to the way those funds are distributed. That change came via state legislation enacted by local representatives Randy Price in the state Senate and Bob Fincher in the state House of Representatives and cut off funds to the Randolph County Equine and Agricultural Association completely.
There are two separate governing boards attached to the center. The Randolph County Equine and Agricultural Association, Inc. is the original board that secured the loan from the USDA in 2018. That board is on the hook for the unpaid loan and is the subject of the foreclosure. That board no longer receives county funds for the center.
The Randolph County Agricultural Center, Inc. is the newer of the two boards and was named as the beneficiary of the county’s funds in the 2025 legislation that altered how the county paid out its tobacco tax revenue.
In 2026, the budgeted amount earmarked for payment to the Agricultural Center was $42,000. The center receives 10 percent of the county’s tobacco tax revenue annually.
The center’s history of financial distress extends back as far as 2023, when the USDA initially began to seek restitution for the unpaid loan. In response, in April of 2024 the Randolph County Equine and Agricultural Association and its president and director Stephanie Herren filed a lawsuit against the USDA seeking an injunction against foreclosure proceedings.
At that time the Randolph County Equine and Agricultural Association was still receiving its annual tobacco tax payout from Randolph County.
On August 15, 2025, the lawsuit against the USDA was dismissed, paving the way for foreclosure proceedings to continue. Six months earlier Randolph County’s state representatives (Price and Fincher) pulled funding from the Randolph County Equine and Agricultural Association and switched it to the The Randolph County Agricultural Center, Inc.
According to that document the Randolph County Equine and Agricultural Association originally applied for funds from the USDA on February 19, 2015 to finance the construction of a new facility.
“On August 20, 2015, RCEAA’s application was approved, and it was granted a loan of $1,370,500,” the court document reads. “Due to higher-than-expected construction bids and a cost overrun during construction, two additional loans were issued over the course of the project for $176,000 and $458,000 respectively. By March 2018, RCEAA had received $2,004,500 in loans. Due to unforeseen operating issues, the Plaintiffs failed to make full payment on the original loan, but they made payments on the two secondary loans.”
The document implies that the newer Randolph County Agricultural Center board was formed as a result of this financial distress and describes the Randolph County Agricultural Center board as “a nonprofit comprised in part of several disgruntled former RCEAA board members.”
The newer RCAC board then extended an offer to purchase the entire facility as a way to relieve the older RCEAA board of its debt.
“On September 15, 2022, an individual associated with RCAC approached the Plaintiffs with an offer to buy RCEAA’s property for $600,000 and transfer the outstanding loans to RCAC,” the court document reads.
However RCAC, because of the type of organization that it is, did not meet the specific organizational qualifications required by the USDA to take on the loan, and the deal never materialized.
Seven months later in April of 2023 the USDA sent a settlement agreement to Herren and the RCEAA board. At that point the the board was behind on its payments by over $330,000.
The USDA “provided a list of actions the Plaintiffs could complete by June 17, 2023, to apply for debt settlement,” the document reads. “Under the agreement, Plaintiffs would need to wind up and disband RCEAA.”
The board rejected the settlement proposal and instead asked the USDA to buy the property at a price of $600,100. The USDA rejected that offer and moved forward with foreclosure proceedings, setting up the lawsuit and subsequent ruling for dismissal.
