County fair board looks to future

The Sanders County Fair was canceled a week ago, but the work of the fair commission goes on.

With the fair out of the way, the members of the board and fair staff are concentrating their efforts on making physical improvements to the fairgrounds. "We don't need to be dwelling on what happened last week, we need to look forward to make next year's fair the best. We want the next one to be spectacular," said Fair Commission Chairman Randy Woods at the board's regular meeting last Wednesday at the fairgrounds. The Sanders County Board of Health a week earlier voted 4-1 to cancel the fair due to potential spreading of the coronavirus.

The fair board decided that since there won't be a fair this year, they'd take the opportunity to get work done on the fairgrounds. Four out of the five board members - Woods, Roberta Smith, Jim Newman, and Kim Bergstrom - held a two-hour meeting with Fair Manager Melissa Cady and her assistant, Stacy Gray, to discuss an assortment of regular business items and ways to use funds not spent on this year's fair on upgrading the fairgrounds. The board plans to go to the commissioners with a list of prioritized items. The 15 items on the list ranged from a speaker platform above the rodeo booth to replacing wood siding on some of the grandstands and the agriculture building. The list included work on the restroom stalls, heaters for the agriculture building, and a sky bridge from the west bleachers over the entrance to the south bleachers, which alone would probably go for more than $100,000, according to Woods. Bergstrom felt that the money should be spent on improvements that the public could see. Woods put in about 100 hours working on the fair in June and close to that in July, so far, but he feels the hours are needed to make it a quality fair. The entire board is made up of volunteers. 

The board's budget had been finished, but will have to be reworked because of the fair cancellation. Woods said he hopes to get an additional $100,000 for the budget for improvements. A portion of the list included ceiling insulation for the pavilion, which would in the long run save the county in heating costs. The pavilion, like the rest of the fairgrounds, is used by various groups year around. The board discussed replacing the pavilion, which is believed to have been constructed in the 1930s, but the building was not on the list. Constructing a new pavilion was talked about during the management of Mike Hashisaki, who was at last week's board meeting, but the cost was more than $1 million. 

Hashisaki was there to announce to the board that the Sanders County Fair Foundation, a nonprofit organization, will be donating up to $15,000 to purchase Christmas lights and decorations. "The Christmas light display brought people from all over western Montana, northern Idaho, eastern Washington and adjacent Canadian provinces before, so I imagine it will do the same again," said Hashisaki, who started the Christmas display in 1993, soon after becoming manager. He said they'd like to also purchase photo-electric timers to eliminate the caretaker from having to turn the lights on and off each night. They plan to purchase LED lights, which would cost about $10 a week for electricity, said Hashisaki, who guessed that the lights would be on from dusk to midnight from Thanksgiving to New Year. "People have asked for the lights to return. Now seems to be a good time to do just that," he said. 

Woods said the board started promoting the 2021 fair the day after the health board decision and Cady and Gray immediately called vendors and contractors to give them the bad news. Sixty-five commercial vendors and 20 food vendors had already signed up and most told Cady to use the money for next year, as did many of the 68 demolition derby drivers, said Woods, who added that Tim Denson of Three Forks, who grew up in Thompson Falls, agreed to return next year to provide technical assistance for the derby. "Powder River of course took it hard. We were one of the only rodeos that had plans to move forward and now they have nothing for the rest of the year," said Cady. 

Plains resident Tracy Caldwell said she was disappointed about the fair cancellation and asked the board about a "Sanders County Community Event," which would include a barbecue, local musicians, games, and a silent auction. "Many citizens are angry that our one hundred plus-year-old county fair has been canceled. That simple action has had tremendous negative impact on our community financially and emotionally," said Caldwell, who said her group would like to hold some type of replacement celebration, but on a smaller scale with only Sanders County residents. Caldwell said she posted her idea on Sanders County 411 and in a short time received numerous positive responses, although she said there were some negative ones, too. Woods felt she had a good idea, but told her the Board of Health would have to first approve it before the fair commission could consider it. In addition, because it wasn't on the agenda, the board couldn't legally vote on it. Caldwell plans to take her idea to the Sanders County Board of Health.

Woods said the masks the fair office ordered will be available for the 4-H events. Woods said he was pleased that the health board approved the 4-H plan. "They're a big part of the fair," said Woods, who showed sheep when he was a member of the Little Bitterroot Club from 1979 to 1988.