Grant County, fair agree on vendors

Change in place for one year

EPHRATA — Grant County commissioners approved a one-year agreement with the fair board removing the board’s authority over vendors.

The county and the board were in the process of negotiating the agreement when the commissioners decided to transfer authority over the vendors to county employees. The decision came after several food vendors threatened to skip the Grant County Fair.

The vendors complained about a fair board decision requiring vendors to purchase new registers, a 2.5 percent increase in the amount paid to the county and some interactions with board members.

Fairgrounds Manager Vern Cummings said in a May meeting that none of those changes will go into effect now.

The agreements between the county and the fair board normally run for five years, but the commissioners wanted to review how the change will affect the fair, Commissioner Cindy Carter said.

“We will review that this fall,” she said. “We will meet with the fair board and the vendors and we will probably start working on it in September or October.”

The change may not be permanent, Carter said, adding the commissioners felt they needed to react to the threat of not having food vendors at the fair.

“If everybody is happy we’ll keep it going this way,” she said. “We haven’t made a decision on what we’re doing for the next five years ... We will work with both sides. We need everybody to work together to have a successful fair.”