Fair board discusses repairs and revenue

The Great Northern Fair Board Tuesday evening talked about repairs at the fairgrounds, heard committee reports, welcomed new member Bobbie Dolphay and discussed different ways to generate revenue for the board.

Board member Ray Kallenberger said the Financial Planning Committee met last week and went over some costs from hail damage last year that he thought could be covered by insurance money. The cost to repair the damage was about $6,900, he said, and the county agreed to put the money in the fair’s account.

He added that this money will help the fair get through the rest of the fiscal year.

There is about $13,000 left in the cash reserve, he said, and they are hoping to make some revenue for the fair by getting the campsite open soon as well as with the new fair parking fee approved at the April meeting. The board approved a fee of $5 per vehicle per day or $20 per vehicle for the week.

“We just hope that everyone understands that the money we are charging is going back into the fair,” Kallenberger added. “We are going to have to do it with a lot of volunteer help.“

Fair Board Chair Tyler Smith said another way they plan to generate revenue is through a day-sponsorship board and readerboard.

They would like to put a large sponsorship board that would allow for five one-day sponsors for each day of the fair, he said.

The sign would be on 19th Avenue and U.S. Highway 2 at the stoplight and will have different prices for different days, Smith said.

For example, he said, Saturday and Sunday of the fair, a sponsorship board that faces the highway would be around $3,000, while a sign Wednesday-Friday that faces 19th Avenue would run around $2,000.

Smith said that any organization or company that would be interested in a sponsorship sign should contact him.

A reader board will also be included on the sign, Smith said, and a message can be purchased on this for around $100.

Smith said the poles for the sign have been donated and Montana Sign Co. gave a bid of $1,300 to put the sign up.

Smith said he believes the revenue for the first year, from this sign, could bring in around $7,000.

The board also discussed permanent signage at the fair, which runs $15 per square foot per year.

The other plan to generate revenue is the new parking fee. When it comes to the parking fee presale tickets, Smith said that he has identified 10 possible businesses that could sell tickets and he has contacted about half of those so far.

Smith said he is very thankful to Floren’s Hill County Printing for donating the printing of all the parking fee tickets.

Along with this, the board also discussed who would be collecting the fees and how they would be doing it. They agreed that if any group wants to help collect fees, it would be greatly appreciated and they should let a board member know.

Board member Scott Doney said that he thinks that maybe each group or organization can take eight hour shifts for manning the parking.

Smith said he also talked to staff at Holiday Village Mall about possibly encouraging people to support the fair and not park at the mall and walk over to the fair.

Smith said the roof of the Bigger Better Barn is being worked on and the tin from the old roof is being saved. He said he feels it is best if they put the tin inside the horse pavilion and they can decide what to do with it at a later time.

Smith said they contacted four electricians about updating the lights in the Bigger Better Barn and Jason Loch of Loch Electric was the only electrician to put forth a bid.

He said to put in switches, motion sensors and high efficiency lights, Loch offered to put forth $8,500 in donated labor costs, which leaves the cost at about $10,000. He added that NorthWestern Energy will provide a $5,000 rebate because of the high efficiency lights, which leaves the cost at about $5,000.

“We want to sincerely thank Jason,” Smith said. “It is a stellar price.”

Loch is also helping with the underground power lines that need to be repaired, said board member Jack Solomon. He said that they are progressing with these repairs to the electric power in the south side of the campground. The power to the campsite is not turned on now because of the old and damaged power lines.

Solomon said they are looking to put another meter base in so they won’t need quite as big of wire and they can split it off. He said he told Loch to go ahead and order the boxes they need.

Smith said he noticed that outside the 4-H building, one of the hydrants was damaged during construction. He said he thought he first saw the damage within the last two weeks and he is looking into what happened.

Another issue that was brought up, he said, was a problem with a water meter and double billing.

A water main that goes through a meter to a fairground hydrant, Smith said, was also feeding to the County Shop Complex. This caused the double billing scenario for the county and the fairgrounds.

Smith said he talked to County Commissioner Mark Peterson about the billing and Peterson told him he would handle the matter.

Board member Chelby Gooch said that some of the future events include a comedy show Saturday, May 26, and an antique show during the first weekend in June, and the following weekend is the Hi-Line Cruz’n Annual Rod Run.

She added that they have not decided on a final date for the demolition derby because they are waiting to see about other events before setting a date.

Smith asked that the final date be decided in two weeks.

Doney, who, along with Smith, met with Riley Cooke of Dreamland Carnival Co. said Cooke was worried that the fair was not going on this year.

Smith said he assured Cooke the fair was going to be held and then they discussed possibly moving the fair dates for next year.

Cooke said Dreamland would not be interested in contracting with the fair, Doney said, if the dates were pushed back to August because it wouldn’t work with Dreamland’s schedule.

Doney and Smith both said the future dates and possible contracting needs to be further discussed, but they will wait for later discussion until after the 2018 Fair.