Smith has ideas to improve the Great Northern Fairgrounds

As someone who passes the Great Northern Fairgrounds several times a day, Tyler Smith said he has witnessed what he calls the grounds' steady decline through the years, a trend he hopes to help reverse as the fair board's newest member.

"I would like to be a catalyst for progress at the fairgrounds," Smith said Friday.

In July, he joined the seven-member board that oversees the fairgrounds. He fills the vacancy on the Great Northern Fair Board created in June when Calvin Jilot resigned due to health issues.

Smith, a Havre native, is co-owner of Lakeside Excavation and owner of Rock Solid Materials. He said he thinks his business expertise can help improve the direction of fairgrounds and make them more profitable.

"They deal with such limited funds and they work hard to do with what they can and what they have, but they don't have enough," Smith said.

He said things such as the fairgrounds practice of allowing people to board horses for a fee is something he thinks is a great idea that can be expanded upon.

Smith said he did attend this year's Great Northern Fair. Though this year's carnival was better than the last, he said the size of the crowds was still fairly modest.

"It just seemed walking around, to me, based on my observations the couple of times I was there, I didn't see the amount of people, and we just want to drive more people there," Smith said.

He said more people could be drawn to the fairgrounds through both better marketing of events and making the experience the best it can be for the groups that use the fairgrounds.

More year-round use of the fair grounds is something Smith and other board members have said they want to see, which could bring with it more revenue to maintain the grounds.

Smith said he would love to see more music events there. Having a better grandstand area on the fairgrounds is something he said he would like to see.

Making the needed changes to make the fairgrounds a better, more accessible resource to the public is something that Smith said will be a challenge for the board.

He said so many in the county have opinions about the fairgrounds, but the board is the one that must act in the best interest of the general public.

"It will be a difficult task and there will be hard decisions that will be made, but there is a phenomenal group of people that is on this fair board, and I do believe we can make those decisions and move the fairgrounds forward," Smith said