President and Treasurer of the Recreational Vehicle (RV)/Manufactured Housing (MH) Hall of Fame Darryl Searer has agreed to continue leading the Hall for an additional two years, according to chairman of the board Barry Cole. Searer will also become chairman when Cole’s term expires in 2014 because Jay Hesse, who was serving as vice-chairman and was scheduled to become chairman, had to step down from his post due to family concerns.

In March of 2012, on a non-compensation basis, Searer volunteered for a two-year term to restructure the finances of the Hall in an attempt to sustain it for the future. He managed to reduce the debt from over $5.5 million to $2.5 million, MHProNews has learned.

Searer said, “I am pleased for the opportunity to continue for two more years, as challenging as it will be. My goal during the past two years was to get the Hall where it was financially viable — we’ve done that. But our new challenge of making the Hall debt-free is incomplete. During the next two years, we hope to move as close as possible to making that a reality.” The Hall has an outstanding $550,000 bank loan, as well as a $3 million matching loan from the “Boots” Ingram family that can be paid off with $2 million, according to the terms of the agreement.

(Photo credit: RV/MH Hall of Fame)