Jaycees fireworks still set at the Great Northern Fairgrounds

Editor’s note: This corrects the amount for the contract awarded to Clausen and Sons for work on The Bigger Better Barn.

The Great Northern Fair Board briefly discussed during its meeting Tuesday a few events at the fairground including a fireworks show that the Havre Jaycees will be hold in the lower arena on the evening of the Fourth of July. However no one else will be able to set up similar pyrotechnics on fairgrounds.

Hill County Extension Agent Jasmine Carbajal asked about a drive-in movie event she was hoping would be taking place there as well, but Smith said, he hadn’t made progress the event just yet.

The board also discussed a fence that had recently been put up by volunteers, including a few members of the board, all of whom donated upward of 150 hours of collective work, board member Josh Heitzenroder said.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson thanked the board for this and other efforts being made to improve and maintained the fairground even in the absence of a fair.

“I’d like to recognize the fair board for the time and effort and time they put forward in trying to have a fair, and not only that, but the improvements going on in the fairground is pretty amazing,” he said.

The board voted unanimously to accept a contract from Clausen and Sons to fix four skylights and install energy saving fabric on the interior walls of the Bigger Better Barn for $66,015.

The board discussed progress being made on a front-end loader they are hoping to bring up from California. Peterson said he hasn’t heard from the person trying to give them a quote on the transportation costs. He said he suspects that they are having issues authorizing inter-state travel.

The board voted unanimously to pay the transportation cost of the front loader up to $5,000, in preparation for its arrival.

During the meeting Board Member Ray Kallenberger said the fair board was more than 500 percent over budget on worker’s compensation for this year’s budget all for one employee.

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean said this was the first she had heard about the situation and said there may have been a miscommunication somewhere about the worker’s comp rate that was provided to the fair board when these calculations were made.

Board Member Tyler Smith said the total for the worker’s comp was around $2,000 and wouldn’t break any banks, but the rate was still higher than anything he’s seen in the private sector.

“Mark (Peterson) has told me I can’t compare private work to government, but it is higher than a logger, it is higher than a roofer, it is exorbitant,” he said.