Garfield County Fair a success

POMEROY–Garfield County Fair Board President Sara Lunsford found the consensus of the 2020 Garfield County Fair and Livestock Sale to be in general a success, considers funding through fundraiser and grants a priority, and sparking a new theme for next years’ fair part of the discuss at the recent Board meeting October 10.

Jamie Hames and Larry Ledgerwood gave a recap of the Youth Livestock Show and Sale indicating the weekend went as planned with good cooperation from participants, their families, volunteers and buyers. Comments related to the recent fair went as such: “It went pretty well—wasn’t perfect—but was within what we expected.” Other observations were, “Two weeks went by and there were no outbreaks, so we can call it a success,” and “Of course we miss the real fair, but this worked.” Lunsford appreciated all the hard work put in to this extraordinary fair,

Lisbeth Randall added members “need to get creative and think of fundraising events and ideas” to generate extra money. Lunsford agreed and told the group that grant requests and projects were a big issue. She said there has been confusion in the past as different people worked separately on their own projects and emphasized that “everyone needs to be aware of the needs of everyone else.” She wants every entity and every issue to be covered, and thought having the board involved would make the process cohesive with greater success obtaining grants. Lunsford and Randall will start compiling a master list of possible projects. Larry Ledgerwood suggested a “wants and needs” form be sent to every department superintendent. Clay Tetrick said more pens are needed for the hog barn and asked for direction on writing a proposal for implementing those improvements.

Themes for the 2021 fair was discussed. One idea was to create a theme contest with an award of a $25 “Fairbucks” to be used at the fair.

Lunsford said since flags presently used date back to 1992 and need to be replaced, so new flags have been ordered. She suggested a possible project that involved using the old flags in a respectful way and will check into proper flag etiquette to see if that would be acceptable.

The possibility of raising the price of a family pass was brought up but no action was taken and tabled until the next meeting in order for Randall to look into prices charged at similar nearby fairs.