4-H will remain at Great Northern Fair

During a meeting of the Hill County Fair Board, members said they want to quell a rumor apparently going around the county: The board is not planning to kick 4-H out of the fair.

"I've heard on the street that the fair board is going to do away with 4-H, but there's nobody here that wants to do away with 4-H," board member Tom Farnham said.

Three Hill County 4-H representatives attended the meeting, and discussion of the future of the activity took the first half of the meeting, coming out with an agreement that a commi t tee formed by the board will start working closely with 4-H in planning fo r the future.

Les Odegard, president of the Hill County 4-H Foundation, said questions, such as about how the 4-H Chuckwagon food building at the fair will operate and what will happen with barn usage, are something the activity members are concerned about. They want to work with the fair board on those issues.

"I want to squelch those rumors that 4-H is not going to be a part … of the Great Northern Fair," Odegard said. "That's just ridiculous. 4-H is the Great Northern Fair." He added that without people coming to see the 4-H exhibits and activity, the traffic at the fair will drop and all at the fair would suffer.

Fair Manager Tim Solomon said he also has heard that rumor "over and over, and it bugs me every time I hear Them. No, we're not wanting to get rid of 4-H; it's a big part of our fair," but that space might be better-used.

Solomon said that 4-H uses three barns every year, but it is not using all the space. The space required would be two barns, at the very most, he said.

If things were shifted, the fair could use that space to house other activities that could increase the money coming in for the fair, Solomon said.

"I'm having a hard time seeing barn (space) sitting empty there," he said.

Odegard said 4-H and its foundation are interested in working with the fair board to make any needed changes, and that the organization has a good ability to raise funds. But 4-H needs to be involved in the decision making and know what is happening, he said.

"We've got lots of ideas and plans that can be put into place, but we're kind of waiting here to see what's going to happen," Odegard said.

Odegard and Solomon disagreed on the previous communication.

Solomon said that while they have discussed the issues, nothing has been brought to the board.

Odegard said he had talked about many possible changes, but nothing has happened.

"You and I had a plan, and it was a good plan, and it never went anywhere … ," he said.

"Don't tell us we haven't come to you with a plan. I think we have." Board member Peggy Nivens said she thought the solution would be to revive breaking the board up into committees to work directly with different aspects of the fair, including 4-H. She said she was accosted by someone saying they had heard the board planned to eliminate 4-H, which was the first time she had heard that idea.

"That's when I decided that we, the fair board members, need to get back involved and back on committees," she said.

She suggested creating a committee — which the board did before the end of the meeting — to work with the organization.

"And we would welcome that," Odegard said.

The board also agreed to create other commi t tees i n January, following board elections, to work on other aspects of the fair.