New fairgrounds manager picked

Five months after Mike Sharp resigned as manager of the Great Northern Fairgrounds, the county screening process has been completed and Bob Horne has been hired as the Great Northern Fairgrounds manager.

Horne said he was offered the position last month, after an interview with the county commissioners and talking with several fair board members.

"After meeting this gentleman, I have to say he had a lot of ideas, a lot of things he would like to try," said

Fair Board Member Missy Boucher at the group's meeting in March. "He is not afraid, by the way he talks, to try new things."

Horne graduated from Havre High School in 1981 and immediately thereafter began a nine-year career in the U.S. Air Force. He retired from the Air Force in 1992 before moving to Jackson, Tennessee, where he briefly studied music at Union University but did not graduate. He worked with children with behavioral issues both in Tennessee and later California. Horne returned to Montana in 1995, living with family in Great Falls, before moving to Havre a year later to accept a job with BNSF.

After 10 years he left that job. Horne then opened and managed the Zoo Health Club of Havre. About two years ago, he began work at Tilleman Motor Company.

This year, the Dreamland Carnival Company will be providing rides and games at the fair. The company operates under the umbrella of North Star Amusements, which used to provide rides for the spring carnival in the parking lot of the Holiday Village Mall in Havre.

"It's going to be a different carnival than people have seen in probably quite a long time," Horne said during an interview with the Havre Daily News Monday.

He said he has already spoken with the owner of Dreamland and asked for a promotional video of the rides to post on the fair's website.

Horne said doing so will allow people to get a sense of what they are getting during the lead-up to the fair.

"So I think people are going to be really, really excited," Horne said. "I think this is going to be a fun fair this year."

Having talked already with the fair board members who he said have been "fantastic" in helping him transition into his new post, Horne said revamping the website to make it more user friendly is an area where the board wants him to have a significant role.

He said he wants it to be a "one-stop shop" that can include items or links where people can learn the cost of rooms at area hotels.

Horne is taking the helm as manager after a year marked by tragedy and upheaval. He will be the third person to take the fairground manager position following the resignation of former fairground manager Tim Solomon, also the mayor of Havre, and then Sharp. Two fair board chairs, Bert Corcoran and Alma Seidel, died, and last year's Great Northern Fair was largely seen as a disappointment, marred by bad weather, poor attendance and few rides for older fairgoers.

But Horne said he he sees potential and reason for optimism.

Aside from the annual fair, Horne said he thinks the fairgrounds is an asset that is not being fully utilized.

He compares it to a church, a spacious property that is expensive to be maintain but one the county and people could get more use from.

"We've got this tremendous potential out there, that we could bring in more activities."

Horne said he is having fun coming up with ideas, such as a flea market where, for a small fee, people could set up a table to sell craft or yard sale items, while nonprofits which inhabit the food vendor booths during the fair would have another chance to sell food during the market.

Horne said that, as manager, he will be helping provide a service to the public in the form of the maintenance and use of the fairgrounds and that he is eager to get input from the public on what they want to see more of there.

"Let me know what your ideas are. What would you like to see up there," he said?

The county has long been aiming to make the fairgrounds, which now receives some funding from Hill County, self-sustaining. In order to do this and maintain the property, a reliable stream of revenue will be needed.

He said he hopes that the community center on the fairgrounds could be rented out a lot more frequently for events such as weddings and after funeral gatherings.

For 103 years the Great Northern Fair has not charged admission. This year that tradition will continue, but some have floated the idea of charging attendees a fee.

Though Horne said he is not totally against doing that in future years, it is not his preference.

Rather he would prefer that they reach out to the community and the organizations that reap the benefits of having access to a well maintained fairgrounds,

For example he suggests having a clean up day where people and organizations could come and help spruce up the fairgrounds and then later those volunteers could be thanked with a small barbeque.

Horne said that the fairgrounds also has appeal beyond Hill County and even Montana.

He said that one of the calls he has fielded since he took over as manager was from a man from Canada who wanted to know the dates of this year's fair.

That is another area where the man who is now taking charge of the fairgrounds sees potential.

"If one person wants to come down, how many others would like to come down to the Great Northern Fair? I mean we are that close to the border, so invite the Canadians to come down."