Fair board says 2019 Great Northern Fair a success

Although the final numbers and counts aren't in, the Great Northern Fair Board members agreed Tuesday during the board's monthly meeting at the fairgrounds that this year went well and they are beginning to think about what can be done next year.

"Overall, it was a job well-done for everybody," Recently hired fairgrounds manager Frank English said. "Counting more smiles than frowns. We have more smiles than frowns, so I call it a success."

At the meeting the board and members of the public discussed what they observed at this year's fair, bringing up points about where the fair was the strongest and weakest. Board Vice Chair Chelby Gooch and board Chair Tyler Smith said that many of the final counts are still being worked on for ticket sales and the money made from the vendors. 

English said that for his first year, he saw some positives and negatives. A few issues arose at the grounds last week, he said, such as groups not cleaning up after their event was over or people saying the carnival was small and its employees had bad attitudes. 

Smith said he has spoken with the carnival owner and the board will meet with him at a later date. He added that he was told by the owner that one of the problems was he was short-staffed. In the future, the board and the provider will further discuss how they can work together to get more rides to the fair, Smith said.

English said another issue was a lack of vendors in the commercial building this year and issues with people parking illegally in the handicap area, he said. On the positive, he added, people generally seemed to have a good time and the vendors who were in the commercial building were happy for the most part.

Community member Bill Lanier said he spoke to a few of the vendors and people about the commercial building. He added that with the commercial building half-full on both sides, maybe the board should look into consolidating them all to one side so they are not as spread out. Another issue was the low traffic through the commercial building and high cost to have a booth.

He said it is still a positive to have the fair every year.

"I know not everybody is always happy with it, but the fact that we still have a fair, I think, is awesome and I would like to see it keep getting better," he said.

Lanier added that with the new fair manager they may be able to work toward attracting more people to the commercial building and figure out how to encourage the community to visit the different vendors.

Smith said part of the role of the manager is one of a salesman. He added that the board can also lower the cost of renting a booth, but the challenge is attracting visitors. The board may be able to look into possibly offering prizes to people who walk through in the future as well as offering prizes for the vendors. 

Although vendors deal with a number of factors, he said. Organizers struggle to get volunteers, much like a number of other groups, and more venues are competing for crafters' business. It used to be the fair was the place for these vendors to do business, but with the craft shows throughout the year vendors have other options, he said. 

Community member Jody Nugent said that another possibility for the commercial building could be setting up tables and chairs in the building in addition to the vendors. This change could possibly increase traffic, giving people an option to get out of the sun and off of their feet and filling the empty space.

The board also discussed the parking fees which were used for the second year this year. Smith said that in the future the board will need to develop a better template for the parking process because cars cannot be lined up onto the highway waiting to be parked and find ways to improve the procedure. He said that this year a number of people felt they didn't have to pay for parking because they were working for the vendors but the people taking the fees had no way to verify. He added that he has no problem letting vendors park free, but they have to know it is legitimate.

Gooch agreed and added that a similar problem arose at the night shows. A number of people would come through and say they were contestants but they had no way to verify the information. She said that in the future they may look to work with the night shows more on seeing how this can be corrected. 

"We just have to figure out a better way to make things work out there and make it work faster," she said. "You know, it's only year two and we got to work out the quirks, but we'll get it eventually."

Smith said without funds the board is unable to make any improvements on the fairgrounds and the parking fees are a great resource of funding to allow them to make improvements, such as repaving.

"Without the parking fees and sign standards, we couldn't have got the paving done that we did, and it was pretty important to get that much done, and we should do that much every year if not more," he said.

Hill County Search and Rescue volunteer Paul Nugent said Search and Rescue volunteered 350.5 hours to the fair during security and assistance.

"This year we were down a little bit on our lost and found children, but we kind of attribute that to the wristbands we give out that got mom and dad's phone numbers on them," he said.

Smith said the board received numerous compliments on The Hockey Circus Show and the pig races that were held. He said he would also like to be able to get the band, Dateline Drive Band from Kansas City, that performed at the fair this year back next year.

He said English and board member Josh Heitzenroder spent a lot of time prior to the fair working on the grounds as well as repairing a cart, designed to look like a train, that people could ride as it ran around the fairgrounds. 

"The train was a hit," Smith said.

Smith gave a special thanks to the board members and their families who volunteered.

"I think we should all be proud of everything that was done because I think it went off very well," he said.

He gave a special thanks to Gooch and board member Bobbie Dolphay who volunteered the most hours.

"I personally want to thank them," he said. "It wouldn't have been possible without them, in my opinion.