Fair board hears proposal for drive-through Pronto Pup vending

The Great Northern Fair Board met Tuesday and discussed a potential food vending event at the Great Northern Fairgrounds to be put on by the Havre Lions Club in September, as well as other issues.

Havre Lions Club President Becky Toth said her organization was thinking about holding a drive-through event on the fairgrounds to sell their food to people who missed them this year due to COVID-19.

“We’re trying to come up with different ways to sell our Pronto Pups since we didn’t have a fair,” she said.

Toth said the idea was discussed at a club meeting last Thursday where they formed a small committee to see if any of the other service clubs in Havre were interested in participating.

She said they’re hoping to hold the event from Friday, Sept. 18 to Sunday, Sept. 20 this year, with people entering through the Great Northern Fair-ground’s main entrance and leaving through the south exit with their food.

“We’re hoping Festival Days weekend we can just open the booth up here,” she said.

Toth said there were still plenty of details to work out, but she wanted to put the event on the Fair Board’s radar.

Multiple members of the board said they thought the event was a great idea.

Hill County Extension Agent Jasmine Carbajal also updated the board on how the 4-H Fair, which was held at the fairgrounds last weekend, went.

Carbajal said she appreciated the public’s support of the event, and that they respected Extension’s request for them to attend the event virtually instead of in person.

“The public did really well in not coming,” she said, jokingly.

She also said the animal sale went very well given the circumstances and the community really stepped up in supporting the event.

“We had a really good sale,” she said, “We made $30,000 more than last year with fewer animals.”

The only issue she brought to the board’s attention regarding the event was that there was an excessive amount of birds in the barn that got distractingly loud at times.

Members of the board said this is an issue that is being worked on.

Fair Board Chair Bobbie Dolphay said she was looking into purchasing 10 to 20 hand sanitizing stations for the fair grounds.

Carbajal said she has a model in her office that can be filled with any kind of hand sanitizer and highly recommended it to the board.

Dolphay also said she’s been thinking about trying to improve the Great Northern Fair’s website to make it more user-friendly and so people know who to contact with questions about certain issues.

“I’d honestly like to revamp our website so it’s a little more accessible,” she said.

Board member Ray Kallenberger provided an update on the fair board’s finances, which he said, are looking good this year. However, he said that might change next year given the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve taken in 101 percent of our budget and used 65 percent of it, so we’ve done pretty well this year, but next year is going to be different because we didn’t have a fair,” he said.

The board also made appointments to their committees, naming Chelby Gooch, Tyler Smith and Ray Kallenberger to the Finance Committee.

Jack Solomon and Josh Heitzenroder were appointed to the Grounds Committee, with Gooch and Heitzenroder appointed to the Policy Committee.

The board did not decide on whether the third positions on the Grounds or Policy Boards would go to Smith and Ron Konesky.