Fair Board hosting chili feed fundraiser Friday, October 30

The Big Horn County Fair Board is hosting a chili feed Friday, Oct. 30 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.  The event is a fundraiser. Proceeds will go to fairground improvement projects. Past fundraisers raised money for the pig barn. The fundraiser was discussed at the board’s regular board meeting on October 7.

There will also be a silent auction. If you would like to donate to the auction, please contact a fair board member: Rebecca Bates, Tracy Haley, Tim Allen, Katrina Zeller, Dan VanderPloeg and/or Jesse Dewey.

OPEN BOARD POSITION 

Also discussed was the open board position. The opening has been advertised but no one has applied. Applications are available on the county website. 

FAIR DATES/THEME 

The 2027 fair dates are August 2-8. As in the past, the board is seeking suggestions for the theme.  Once a theme is chosen, a contest for the fair book cover will be held among school ages students.   The board chose to table the discussion until the next board meeting. 

OTHER BUSINESS 

• Treasurer Haley could not give a complete financial report as she has not received a copy of the bank statement from the courthouse. This leaves her unable to reconcile the check book as she doesn’t know which checks have cleared. 

• The board discussed the final fair review. Bates noted that there are meal tickets that have not been turned in by vendors. Tablescaping was also a topic. The winners from this past fair have not received their checks.

• The board is still discussing the beer garden contract. They also discussed how to best to fix the security issues from the last fair. People were not staying in the designated areas.  They will continue the discussion at future meetings. 

• Bates asked County Commission Chair Deb Craft the plans for next year’s fair event planner. The contract for this year’s planner ended October 1. Craft responded said the commissioners have met with Dusty Miller and Amanda Otto to get their insight from this year’s fair. She suggested that Bates come to the October 20 County commissioner meeting. 

• The board discussed creating a new fair Facebook page as they have no access to the current one. A previous fair manager has control over it and has not turned over the administrative role. 

• An executive session was held to discuss personnel.