Good reports come in from Great Northern Fair

Board members and attendees gave high praise Tuesday to the 2018 Great Northern Fair, put together by volunteer work after several years of difficulties.

Audience member Julie Strauser praised the board members, booster club members, fair foundation members and everyone else who worked hard to make the fair a success.

"You guys did an amazing job," she said.

Great Northern Fair Board Chair Tyler Smith echoed Strauser.

"I will commend this community for coming together to put this fair on," he said. "Lots of different hands involved, lots of long days by members of the community, by this board especially. And I have never been on a better board, period.

"I am very proud," Smith said to applause by the audience.

The board has had four different fairgrounds managers in the past three years, and spent several months without a manager in 2016-17 before it hired Dave Brewer in March of that year.

Earlier this year, the board announced it had experienced a revenue shortfall and its budget was in the red.

The Hill County Commission, in addressing the shortfall, put Brewer on furlough due to lack of funds. Brewer later resigned.

Since then, the board has worked and brought in volunteers to get this year's fair put together, with almost every comment Tuesday praising the result.

Smith said that, going forward, the board is seeking more volunteers to help with the grounds and the fair.

Parking fees raise needed funds

The board this year approved implementing a parking fee for people using the fair parking lot, charging per vehicle $5 a day or $20 for a pass to all five days.

Smith said the fees raised $27,995, roughly three times what he had expected.

"We will be able to put that money to work," he said.

He added that many people had complained when the board put in the fee, and a few people complained during the fair, but generally the people paid without any complaint.

He said two groups helped collect the parking fees and received a share of the take, with Bullhook Bottoms Black Powder Club earning $488 for its day's work and the Havre High School Cross Country Team earning $440.80.

"I want to thank those groups," Smith said, adding he hopes to get more groups working for next year's fair.

He said the volunteer response was immense.

"As to donated hours, I don't think I can count that high," Smith said. " ... We did what it takes to get it done."

Indian Relay a huge success

A new event in the arena Sunday was a "tremendous success," Smith said, with the Indian Relay selling $21,500 in tickets.

The fair receives a 15 percent share of that take.

Audience members praised the work done to get ready for the relay.

"Whoever did the track did an amazing job," Strauser said.

Smith credited Bob Doney, Clint Solomon and Kody Peterson with much of the work to get the track ready.

Audience members asked if it would be possible to start the relay later, as it was running at the same time as the 4-H livestock market sale.

The relay had heats at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., while the livestock sale started at 1 p.m.

Others said that the nature of running the relay in one afternoon made the time a requirement. Normally Indian Relays are run over two days.

Due to the fact that the same horses are used in both heats, the heats have to be spaced out to give them rest. Some of the competitors Sunday also hed been competing in other relays Saturday, further complicating when it could be held.

Success and suggestions

Smith said other parts of the fair also generally saw success. Some vendors said they probably did less in sales this year than last, but others reported doing better. The exact amounts from the vendors were not available by Tuesday's meeting, Smith said.

Former board member and 4-H member Karla Vaughn said she heard from people who suggested it would help if the food vendors gave their menus to the fair board to be posted on the website.

Smith said he thinks the groups selling the food could do more on their own to publicize their menus using social media.

Board member Ray Kallenberger said a person working the commercial building suggested changing the hours there. He said they had times where three or four people were coming through per hour.

Kallenberger said the person suggested having the building closed Wednesday, open 5-9 p.m. Thursday, all day on Friday and Saturday and closed Sunday.

He suggested sending out a survey to commercial building users to see what they thought about the suggestion.

During a discussion of the open display exhibits, including getting a notice to schools in the fall so teachers have enough time to save student work for display, board member Chelby Gooch suggested the board try to get premium books out as it had done in the past.

Audience member Bill Lanier suggested getting a digital version of the premium books up online for future fairs.

Kelly Compton of Havre Youth Baseball said the beer garden, which that group operates as a fundraiser, went very well this year.

"It was nice to have people there, and to have a band was huge," she said.

Roof problems at Bigger Better Barn

Smith gave an update on construction on the Bigger Better Barn.

"My favorite subject that just will not go away," he said.

Built Wright did not complete work it was doing on the barn, and for some reason, the roof over the concession area collapsed, he said. The company was back working on the barn at a cost of $500 a day deducted for how long past the completion date of their contract it takes to complete it.

Smith said after the meeting that the board hired Korb Construction to get repairs done for the fair.

He said the metal from the roof was not salvagable, and the fair board received $1,670 by taking it to Pacific Steel and Recycling.

He added that installing insulation in the roof made a major difference, estimating that it kept the barn 10 degrees to 15 degrees cooler even before figuring in the impact of using swamp coolers. Smith added that if the board could get the walls of the barn insulated it would help even more.

Hill County Extension Agent Shylea Wingard had previously complimented the board for the work on the barn, commenting on the improvement in the lighting and the help of the insulation.

Budget and a mill levy proposal

Smith said the budget for next year has been submitted to the Hill County Commission, and read a proposal to implement a mill levy to increase funding for the fair that will be sent to the commission for approval.

He read the proposed language of the resolution, which says that due to increased expenses and revenue shortfalls a proposal will be put on the 2018 federal election ballot that, if approved by a majority of the voters, would allow the commission to levy up to 4 additional mills to fund the fairground operations.

The levy would raise up to about $141,000 in additional funds a year, with 4 mills amounting $5.40 in taxes on a $100,000 home and $10.80 on a $200,000 home.

Depending on the needs of the fair board budgets, each year the commission could levy between zero and 4 mills in addition to the one-tenth of 1 mill already levied for the fair.

The group discussed if that levy could be saved or used to leverage funding for a new grandstand at the arena, and the board agreed to research what could be done.

Obstacle course at the fairgrounds

Vaughn brought before the board a request from Hill County 4-H to use the fairgrounds on the Saturday during Festival Days, as the demolition derby normally held that day is not happening this year.

The obstacle course would be a fundraiser which 4-H hopes to make an annual event. She said 4-H will take the lead this year, but hopes to get other groups involved in the fundraiser as well.

Vaughn said 4-H held its first fundraiser during the fair this year, but it was aimed at children. For Festival Days, she said, 4-H is hoping to have courses for adults as well as children.

She said 4-H also would like to see other groups participating, like food vendors opening and Youth Baseball opening its beer gardens.

Kallenberger said the Montana State University-Northern Rodeo will be happening that day in the Bigger Better Barn, which Vaughn said she had not been advised about.

Smith suggested 4-H request an arena rental to use for the obstacle course, advising Vaughn that 4-H would be responsible for setting up before and cleaning up after the event.

Vaughn said 4-H would come back to the next meeting with more final proposals.

Hosting stray dogs

The board also heard a request from RezQ Dogs, a nonprofit dog rescue based near Dodson.

Casey Solomon said the operation is starting to get an influx of dogs and expects to receive more, beyond its abiltity to hold. She said RezQ Dogs is requesting the fair provide some space for some of the dogs until they can be processed, assessed and vaccinated. Once the processing and vaccination is done, some of the dogs will be sent to other dog rescue operations in Montana and other states.

The board agreed that RezQ dogs could rent a barn and portable horse stalls to temporarily house the dogs.