Fair board meets with Lions

Members of the Sanders County Fair Board met with the Plains Lions Club last Tuesday evening to discuss options to the demolition derby insurance issue.

“Both parties are diligent to finding a solution to the situation,” said Plains Lions Club President Duane Highcrane, who had initially been opposed to signing a waiver to be in the arena, but has reconsidered that option.

Some of the club members have attended recent fair board meetings over the last few months after finding out that the county’s insurance company, MACO, is mandating that they sign waivers or purchase “spectator insurance” during the demo derby. The insurance issue came to light last year after Lions member Ron Warren was injured in the arena. It was discovered that neither the club nor the fair had insurance that covered accidents in the arena.

Since that time, Sanders County Commissioner Carol Brooker, the fair board, and the club have been trying to come up with a solution. Highcrane said there’s no way the club can afford to purchase spectator insurance, which would be $2,500 to $3,000.

On Tuesday, fair board members Wade Rehbein and Heidi Kirkwood, along with Brooker, attended the Lions meeting and presented some of the options to the entire club. Brooker said the derby will continue and wants to include the club, but they need to figure out exactly what role the club will play.

The fair and club have a contract that still has two more years to go, but it states that the club “furnish insurance releases for all entrants and personnel employed or used during the event to absolve the Sanders County Fair Commission of any responsibility for personal injury or property damage during the event.” Chuck Wassinger, the Lions treasurer, said the club thought it had the proper insurance, but discovered it specifically did not cover demolition derbies. Last year was the first year that a club member was injured since it took over the derby in 1972, although about 10 years ago, Lions member Ron Robinson was struck with a beer can tossed by a spectator.

As per the contract, the club pays for the trophies, cash prizes and the music during the event, which amounted to about $7,500 in 2017, when they had 17 cars in the derby. The top winner of the night received $3,000. The derby is the club’s biggest fundraiser of the year, most of which goes to pay for the Plains wading pool lifeguards and maintenance. In the original contract, the fair paid the club $9,000 to put on the show, but an amendment raised that to $13,500.

Rehbein and Kirkwood presented the club with possible alternatives to working in the arena, if the club members don’t want to sign the same waivers the derby drivers do. Paige Carney of Arlee has volunteered to help the club in the arena for the last two years. Carney and his crew of volunteers have signed waivers and will continue doing so, according to Carney. Though Carney has offered his services on a volunteer basis, the Lions Club has given him a portion of their profits, said Highcrane.

Highcrane said the club would have to clear at least $5,000 in profits to make it worthwhile. One of the options the fair board presented was that the fair pays for the trophies and prizes directly. Kirkwood suggested perhaps the club receive a percentage of the ticket sales. Because there’s been a decline in the number of derby cars in recent years, Kirkwood noted that the fair wouldn’t be able to continue to pay the Lions Club the same amount.

“So, if we have a gang buster year, you guys share into that, but if we have a bad year, you share in that,” said Rehbein, who suggested that if the Lions aren’t working in the arena, they could take on other responsibilities, such as registration or security in the pits. Wassinger believes there needs to be more control on the number of people allowed in the pit area. Lion Ron Ruguleiski guessed there were possibly 80-90 people, including kids, in the pits last year, a major safety problem. It was suggested that only a driver and one or two helpers be allowed in the pit area.

Another safety issue that was brought up at the meeting was the large logs that have been placed in the arena to keep the cars in a specific area while bashing each other. It was suggested that the logs be replaced by concrete Jersey barriers, which Lion Steve Spurr the fair might be able to get for free. Rehbein said getting them to the fairgrounds could be a problem.

“Those logs are pretty much worthless. You can literally reach down there and roll them with your hand,” said Highcrane. At the meeting, Lion Anita Marsh brought up the idea of installing some type of strobe lights in the arena to signal drivers to stop when there’s a problem. The Lions Club has been using flags and foghorns, Highcrane said the drivers can’t hear the horns and don’t always see the flags.

“There’s a lot of ideas, we just need to come up with one that makes everyone happy and one that is good for everyone,” added Rehbein.

Highcrane said his group discussed the derby situation for about 45 minutes after Rehbein, Kirkwood and Brooker left. He said they plan to talk about it again at another meeting and present their decision at the April 18 fair board meeting.