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Fair Board Finalizing Details for 2024 Fair

MIKE MOTZ

Sidney Sun-Telegraph

SIDNEY--On Monday, June 10, the Cheyenne County Fair Board met to finalize details of the upcoming Cheyenne County Fair. The first order of business was approving Travis Sprenger as an alternate Board Member. Gina Elsen was also proposed as a new alternate member, but the Fair Board tabled the nomination, wanting Elsen to come in and participate in a few board meetings before making a decision.

Treasurer Kip Miller went over the Treasurer's Report, saying the board currently has $216,982.00 in its account. Miller stated that the Fair Board brought in $30,200.00 last month, and has $72,450 in total donations committed, but not all have paid into the Fair Board yet. Miller stated that they have yet to receive a signed contract from Thomas Mac, one of the musical performers scheduled to appear at this year's fair. After the meeting, Mac's management was contacted and the contract not being sent back was an oversight, and will be sent to the Fair Board in the next few days. There is still $13,985 left in the concert budget, as Mac's fee has not been deducted as of yet.

The Rodeo Committee discussed getting a Rodeo Queen from another location, such as Kimball or Logan County in Colorado to come to the Fair. This year, Cheyenne County had no applicants for Fair Queen, so last year's Queen, Tessa Little, will make an appearance before officially abdicating her crown on Tuesday at the fair. There will also be an effort to get the runner-up from the Nebraska State Fair to make an appearance. The Rodeo Committee also stated they are ready to start to prepare the arena for the PRCA Rodeo event.

Michelle Weimer spoke with the Fair Board about the Rowdy Round-Up Dance Competition, and she said that currently, they have five cheer teams and six dance teams participating. Weimer has been raising money to cover expenses and awards, and checks have been approved for the judges of the events. There was also talk about including a solo dance competition that will be brought up at the next meeting.

Zach Oliverius spoke about the Combine Derby and the difficulties they have had getting participants. They currently only have one confirmed participant, which would not be enough for the event. There was a discussion about buying a used combine, fixing it up, and then having a raffle where the winner would be allowed to drive the combine in the event. There was a discussion about how demolition derbies throughout the area have experienced a downturn in the number of participants due to economic difficulties, and how this is affecting these types of events. It was decided to continue to try to get participants for the Combine Derby for a bit longer, but if no other participants sign up, the event would need to be canceled.

Additional lighting for the west side of the arena and roping boxes was discussed, as there were complaints last year about the lack of lighting in certain spots of the fairgrounds. A discussion about the safety of walking from the north side of the arena to the south side, where the concessions are located, was had with numerous members saying that people using that route, especially during the Barrel Races, could cause a safety problem. Currently, Cheyenne County Buildings & Grounds Superintendent Tom Payne is working on getting additional lighting in the parking lot and south side of the grandstand area.

The board also decided not to set up a booth at the Downtown Sounds event on June 21, as the amount of work and time required is not enough to justify the small amount of money that would be raised from participating. After the fair on August 8, a Sponsor and Volunteer dinner will be held at the Lazy S Ranch outside of Sidney. There will be a taco bar for those attending, and the board decided to have the event at the Lazy S rather than the Elks Lodge because the Lazy S was an early sponsor and the earlier “kick-off” event for the general public was held at the Elks Lodge.

The board spoke about hiring professional photography services and spoke with Jeff Phelps about providing aerial photos and video footage via drone. The cost was $400 per night which would provide 50 edited images and drone footage of 10 videos of about 30 seconds in length each. They also discussed hiring photographer Michale McGill for the Rodeo and Rubber Check race for $800. The board said that they need professional quality photography for marketing materials for fairs in the future.

The board also selected a vendor for T-shirts for the board members and others who will be working at the fair. A front “Fair Board” logo and the Cheyenne County Fair logo will be on the back of the shirt. They are getting the shirts for $15 plus tax for each, and set-up fees have been waived. The vendor is Boondock Designs out of Chappell. There was also a discussion of getting hi-visibility vests for those working security at the fair. The board decided to order two T-Shirts and one Polo Shirt for each member as an initial order.

There was also a discussion on which member or members should be listed on the Liquor License application for the Beer Garden. There was a liability discussion about alcohol, and what the Fair Board is responsible for within the confines of the designated Beer Garden area. Last year, there was an incident involving alcohol consumption outside of the designated area, and the board members wanted to make sure they would not be liable in case somebody brought their alcohol and consumed it in the parking lot or any other non-designated area. The board decided to contact County Attorney Paul Schaub for clarification on this matter.

Ryan Filsinger spoke to the board about their marketing efforts, saying that numerous radio stations throughout the panhandle region out to North Platte have been engaged, and many are looking for tickets as giveaways as part of the marketing efforts. The board decided to give four tickets out to the radio stations requesting, but just for the concert events. The board also discussed 150 Posters that were being printed and distributed throughout the county and the timeline for the newspaper inserts in the Sun-Telegraph. The board also decided to commit $1,000 to Spotify and $1,000 to SnapChat for targeted advertisements on their services. The reason given is that the board feels our local area is being saturated with marketing messages in all of the traditional mediums, and using digital marketing could expand the reach of the marketing while targeting a younger clientele. Although the board members were unsure of the effectiveness of the digital marketing efforts through Spotify and SnapChat, they approved the expenditure and will monitor its effectiveness for future consideration.

The final discussions concerned logistics such as moving and staging trash barrels for a more efficient daily cleaning of the fairgrounds during the fair, and also expanding cleaning services for the bathroom facilities. Last year, the restrooms were cleaned in the morning and at night, and the board wishes to expand the cleaning to a few times each during the day. They are asking for bids from two local cleaning services.

 

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