Grant County Fairgrounds gets new director

MOSES LAKE — It’s a long way from the tobacco stands of Tennessee to the potato fields of Central Washington.

But that’s the journey Mickey Webb has made.

“I grew up a Tennessee farm boy,” Webb said. “Tobacco and beef cattle, so running a county fair is a natural fit.”

The 42-year-old Webb currently oversees the Kittitas County Fairgrounds, a job he’s held for the last two years. But as of Jan. 3, he will be taking his place as the new director of the Grant County Fair.

Webb is no novice to event planning and management. For the last 20 years, he has run major events at Middle Tennessee State University and the University of Maryland in College Park, and was even a director of the Baltimore Convention Center.

“We hired him because he has experience working large events,” said Grant County Commission Chairwoman Cindy Carter. “He is extremely organized and fiscally sound. He’s run great big events attended by thousands, and not just fairs. That’s why we think he’s a good fit.”

Wanting to come out to the Pacific Northwest, Webb said he grabbed at the chance to run the Kittitas County Fair. It’s a good job, he said, and he wasn’t looking for a change until some friends suggested he apply to Grant County.

“I took a look, I drove around [the fairgrounds], and I decided to apply,” he said. “I’m not familiar with the area, and there will be a learning curve.”

With his years of managing large and varied events in all sorts of venues, Webb said he hopes to bring new ideas that will add to the liveliness of the fair.

So he is excited about the opportunity to bring more financial stability to the Grant County Fairgrounds by encouraging more year-round activities, especially motor sports — something he been trying to organize in Ellensburg.

“There’s Arenacross, Eurocross, there’s a huge interest,” he said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com