Grant County Fair board members upset about removal

MOSES LAKE - Grant County Fair Board members expressed their

disappointment with a decision not to renew their contract.

The county and the fair board operated under a contract allowing

the board to run the fair. The two groups were negotiating a new

contract, before a letter last week from the commissioners stating

they would not renew it next year.

MOSES LAKE - Grant County Fair Board members expressed their disappointment with a decision not to renew their contract.

The county and the fair board operated under a contract allowing the board to run the fair. The two groups were negotiating a new contract, before a letter last week from the commissioners stating they would not renew it next year.

Instead, the county plans to create an advisory committee and turn over managing the fair to the fairgrounds staff.

Fair board President Gary Ribail started the meeting saying in the past they've sat quietly while people have made accusations.

"Feel free to say anything you want, but be prepared to substantiate it," Ribail told the about 20 attendees. "In the past, we have sat quietly and been accused of things without any substantiation and that's not going to happen tonight."

Fair board member Jan Widmer refuted Commissioner Cindy Carter's comments in a Columbia Basin Herald article, asking new fair board members to stand, calling out four names.

"They say there are no spots and nothing is ever available for new board members. Every single one of us is new," she said. "This was our first fair this last fair. So there is opportunity to get onto the fair board. We did it. All you have to do is show an interest and do it."

Ribail agreed, saying they sometimes go out begging to get people to participate on the board.

Former fair board member Casey McDowall challenged the board, saying there were at least three spots open for two years when she was a member.

"People had submitted letters," she said. "So that part is true."

Board members Laura Cobb and Hal Gruver said the problem was trying to get people to represent the outlying communities. Cobb said they advertised in papers in the communities to find people who were interested.

"When I first came on the board we were appointed by the county commissioners," Gruver said. "Then they changed it around and the reason they made the decisions they did is the rodeo grounds was called Moses Lake Rodeo, and this agitated the commissioners, and the way it was going they were afraid the board was going to become the Moses Lake board."

The commissioners mandated the board have three members from Moses Lake, one from Wilson Creek, one from each one of the communities, Gruver said. The board needed to advertise in the communities to attract board members from them.

"They had priority, if at all possible, to be on the board," he said. "They set the number at 15. A year later, we had a meeting and the room was packed and we tried to get it reduced. We weren't getting the members. The county commissioners came back and mandated at that time, again, 15 members and from these communities and we had no choice about it."

Gruver said he joined the fair board as a way to give to the community, and he felt the commissioners treated the board unfairly.

"My dad told me when I was young, he said, 'Hal, every pancake, no matter how thin, has two sides to it,'" he said. "As I got older, I began to understand there are two sides to everything. Now, the commissioners came down on us. The commissioners have never come to us and asked us for our side of the story. Now that's not right."

Several members of the board said the first time they heard the commissioners' decision was in an e-mail stating they wouldn't renew the contract.

Ribail said the $25,000 the fair association receives as part of it's contract goes to pay for the fair association appreciation dinner and pays for the board members to attend conventions. He also pointed out the association helped pay for horse stalls.

Fair board Member Lucinda West said members receive education about what is happening at other fairs at the conventions. She also pointed out the board members spend about 20 hours a week each month volunteering.

"They paid my expenses to go, but they didn't pay me to go," she said. "Nobody here on the board was paid a salary to go to that convention."

McDowall said all of the volunteers at the fair spend hours at the fairgrounds.

Board member Dick Pulis disagreed with how the decision was made, but said the fair won't stop because of the decision. He worked with several fairs throughout Montana and Washington.

"They're all organized different," he said. "None of them were organized like that fair association here ... I was very pleased when I came here and saw how this one was organized, and I'm still quite pleased with it."

He agreed with Gruver saying he believed only one side of the story was told to the county commissioners. Part of the problem is with the board, Pulis said.

"We knew some of this was going on and I think we didn't make the complaint that the sales committee isn't real happy with the office," he said. "We didn't let them know what we were doing."

Ribail pointed out the fairgrounds manager was only at about three meetings during the past year, and the office manager hasn't attended a meeting during the past year.

"In prior years, the fairgrounds manager was at our meeting. The office manager was at our meeting, so that they were up to date on what we were doing," he said. "That hasn't happened."

Lee Graham agreed the fair will continue, saying he's seen similar situations in a number of other fairs across the state.

"I can tell you every time there is a disconnect between the commissioners and the fair, however that might be. The fair suffers for a little while, but it does come back," he said. "So you'll see a little bit of a different organization five years from now. It will come back."

Graham said the money they receive from the county is admired by other fairs around the state, because it allows the county to spend money on items they wouldn't normally be allowed to.

"It sends us to conventions. It allows us to buy an appreciation dinner for our sponsors and recognize those folks," he said. "It's a small amount of money, but the county can't pay for those things."

Ribail also challenged the commissioners to provide evidence that a smaller fair advisory committee will be beneficial.

"I'd like to read it. I'd like to see what fairs they have canvassed and what information they have," he said. "We're going to have an association meeting here in two or three weeks because we have money that we're going to have to decide what we're going to do with it."

Ribail and Cobb brought up concerns with how the fairgrounds office handled Davis Carnival during the previous year. Ribail explained the carnival's contract states the fair won't bring in competing rides.

"Last year, they paid us $92,000 to be here," Ribail said. "Pat (Davis) has always been very gracious. If we had something like pony rides, which actually is a competition, we would call him."

The fairgrounds office approved a Bungee jump, two virtual spaceship rides and another ride, not associated with Davis Carnival, Ribail said. The office staff did not contact Davis, causing a possible breach of his contract.

"He got here, and I think I must have apologized to him about 10 times during fair," he said. "Then they stuck them right down next to (Davis' carnival.)"