Consultant discusses fairgrounds

More horses could help haul the Boone County Fairgrounds out of its financial straits.

Rod Markin, a consultant from Maple Grove, Minn., told Boone County commissioners on Thursday morning that a covered arena and more horse stalls would be solid first steps toward attracting more horse shows and bringing back shows that have left the fairgrounds for other venues.

The fairgrounds’ outdoor arena and warm-up area, Markin said, can’t compete with five other horse show venues he identified as primary competitors.

“Horse shows have been lost due to the lack of a covered warm-up area,” Markin said. “It would be nice to cover that arena.”

Five horse shows have stopped doing business with the fairgrounds in the past four years.

Boone County owns the fairgrounds, but the Boone County Agricultural and Mechanical Society, known as the fair board, runs its management and operations. The county commission, searching for a way to make the fairgrounds more financially viable, hired Markin for $34,480 to provide recommendations.

Markin’s preliminary report highlighted the slow flow of horse shows to demonstrate which areas of the grounds need improvement. In addition to a covered arena, Markin recommended more than 100 new horse stalls and another exhibition building with full climate controls. He also noted the ceiling of the existing multipurpose room has tears in its fabric and insulation.

The new additions would allow the Boone County Fairgrounds to host more than one show at a time, something the competition can already do.

“To be successful, we need to figure out a way to have multiple shows,” Markin said.

For years, Boone County has counted on the annual county fair to make a small profit. Although the fair board schedules just less than 100 events annually, operating costs and a lack of marketing keep profits low.

Another reason for those narrow margins, Markin said, is that in-house employees take care of the cleanup at no charge to the organizations that hold events. Many other facilities either require the groups to clean up their own messes or charge a fee for their own employees to take care of it.

Some of the plans Markin mentioned are at odds with the master plan for the fairgrounds that Boone County and the Columbia City Council approved in 2003. That document calls for baseball, soccer and rugby fields on the southern half of the property, an area that Markin said could serve as a site for a new exhibition building. The master plan does include a covered arena, but not more horse stalls as Markin recommended.

Northern District Commissioner Skip Elkin said Markin did a good job of identifying the areas of the fairgrounds that need improvement.

“I think it’s pretty much right on target,” he said.

Southern District Commissioner Karen Miller said that while she agrees with Markin’s assessment, she would like to see more research on what would happen if the county were to increase staff and marketing rather than rely on expensive capital improvements.

“I think we need to know what our options are without doing anything (in regard to building projects),” she said.

The presentation was a preview to the final report the commission expects in early April.

“This is a draft in progress,” Markin said.