Fair book cover winner Reece Allen recognized for artwork

For two years in a row, the Big Horn County Fair Book cover was designed by Reece Allen of Burlington.  

At the August 6 fair board meeting, Allen was presented a plaque from the board.  She also was the artist that created the fair book cover last year.  Board Chair Rebecca Bates said the Reece is extremely talented, not only with her fair book cover art, but also with the art she enters at fair.   Having local youth showcase their talent is an important part of fair.  

During the same board meeting Allen shared some ideas for next year’s fair including adding a mixed media art division for open class. She believes having the judging guidelines in the fair book would be helpful. 

PUBLIC FEEDBACK 

The board and staff asked for public feedback and suggestions online.  They received over 50 responses from the survey created by office staffer Amanda Otto.  The majority were positive. Bates noted that it was a hard year and things got started late. Things were taken away, things were added, but the fair happened and it was good. 

One consistent area of feedback was the condition of the barns. While the board doesn’t have any control over the barns, they would like to work with the commissioners to improve the barns. Having fundraisers like they did for the pig barn was one discussion item. 

One comment was, “I love this fair, it’s laid back. It’s not cutthroat competition with people cheating to win. I saw a lot of kids working and taking care of their animal on their own.” 

Another area of concern that came up in the survey was food trucks. From the fairgoer’s point of view, they enjoyed having more trucks to choose from. From the vendors point of view, there were too many trucks overall, as well as too many trucks selling similar food products. 

Having the pig show at the pig barn received both positive and negative reviews. 

At the board meeting, several of those in attendance also provided insight.  One of those was regarding safety at the horse show. There were cases of small children bumping into horses. 

Also discussed was having the same rules as State Fair. Bates said that has been a discussion about this board, and they will pursue that discussion for next year’s fair. They already planned on reviewing the guidelines/rules.

Mike Laird said he heard a lot of positive comments from people attending the fair. Those comments include how hard the board and staff were there working all the time. 

Bates responded it was a team effort that included the board, Dusty Miller, Otto, superintendents and a lot of community members. 

OTHER BUSINESS

• Board member Katrina Zeller is looking into an AARP grant to make the grounds more accessible for elderly and ADA needs. 

• The board agreed they would like to be able to announce over the loudspeakers from the office again. They felt it was helpful letting the public know what was happening as far as events, shows, etc. 

• Partial refunds will be given to campers who were unable to run their A/C during fair. 

• Amanda Otto will work with schools throughout the year to get more involvement for elementary education for next year’s fair. 

• Possible changes to the beer/garden contract were discussed. 

• The board will be working on fall and winter festivals.