The Mendocino County Fair, aka The Boonville Fair, is on the ropes, running on fumes, life support, dying. Choose your favorite mortality metaphor. It applies.
The Fair's annual state subsidy of about $215,000 has been cut from the State's budget. Permanently. Unless the Fair can generate more income, it will soon exhaust the reserves it's now running on, the surplus it has accumulated through a combination of popular revenue-generating events, including the much-loved annual Fair itself, and prudent management that continues to this day with Fair Manager Jim Brown.
Brown, a tall, rangy man who looks like the rancher he is when he isn't managing the County Fair, said last week that even with the passage of Proposition 30 and the replenished State cash flow that comes with 30's passage, will flow mostly to education, not to help subsidize county fairs. “We are going to have to try to come up with that much money,” Brown said of the cancelled annual subsidy from the State. “There may be some grant money available for facility upgrades and maintenance, and we certainly will be looking into all of the grant opportunities, but grants generally cannot be used for operating expenses or employment.”
The personable Brown went on to point out that the budget cuts at the state level will negatively affect Fair staff, which is already bare bones. “We have already cut our expenses this year. We saw this coming and we have been as prudent as we can be over last five years. So we have the reserves. Depending on our expenses we might be able to run a year or two more, but then there would be nothing left, no reserves. And the business would be gone,” Brown said. “We would like to be able to finish the year and still have some reserves left and continue to be able to operate at a basic level. We have already increased our fees a little, and we've raised our rentals. But at some point you run yourself out of business. We're certainly not going to be able to make up this shortfall just with increased fees.”
The Western Fairs Association represents county fairs throughout the state. But Brown pointed out Western Fairs is composed of various interests often at odds with each and increasingly indifferent to the welfare of county fairs.
Brown said that at the Monday meeting last week at the Boonville Fairgrounds, several local people had promised help with grant applications, adding, “We’re also starting to work on a direct-mail fund-raising campaign, and we also are looking at some sponsorships or membership arrangements,” he said. “Maybe someone out there could introduce me to someone who could bring some resources to bear or to be a sponsor. That could offset some of our funding loss.”
“We have to figure something out short-term and long-term because we really can't depend on the state for funding anymore,” Brown continued. He said our two state representatives, Chesbro and Evans, told him that county fair subsidies are in competition for money with more pressing state priorities such as healthcare and education. “I made it clear to Mr. Chesbro," Brown said, "how important fairs are to the community and to the local economy. I put together a presentation last year laying it all out. Chesbro said he supports fairs, but he can't vote for fairs over healthcare or fairs over education. He says giving money to fairs would mean taking money away from somewhere else.”
Brown pointed out the domino effect of forcing county fairs to close. “It will put pressure on the bigger fairs because carnivals will suffer and probably try to raise their prices because they’ll have fewer places to operate. Concessionaires and food operators will be squeezed as well. It will hurt the whole industry. Obviously, the state doesn't see the whole picture. The governor has told us that we need people on our boards who are good fundraisers. Essentially they say we're on our own. We would hope that they'd at least provide some minimum level of guaranteed funding even if it has to be reduced. Most of the other departments in the state have been cut something like 30%, but we got cut 100%. We could probably survive if we got at least half of what we were getting. But this is too big a blow too quickly.”
Attracting events that draw lots of people to Boonville, Brown continued, is difficult. “It's hard for boat shows, car shows, RV shows, and so on to come here because they don't think people will drive to Boonville. They prefer areas that are closer to Highway 101. They like that drive-by traffic. Right now our main activity is in the two annual wine events, the music festival, the beer festival, and the Fair itself. We also have some private rentals by locals periodically. We were hoping that the Not So Simple Living Fair would be expanding somewhat in the future as well. We've even had people suggest that we somehow try to tap into the marijuana business, but that doesn’t seem very realistic. We certainly are willing to try anything that is reasonably possible. We're trying to figure out ways to perhaps increase rodeo participation. The sheepdog trials are popular during the Fair but don't provide much of a draw the rest of the year. Our main focus now is grants, sponsorships and fundraising. We'd like it if people could introduce me to people who could provide financial support. Maybe grape growers or other business people would be interested. We would be happy to follow up on any leads. Any suggestions at all, call me at 895-3011.”
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