Board to review feedback in hopes of improving fair

Two members of the public addressed the board at the fair board meeting August 6. Fair board chair Rebecca Bates stressed at different times in the meeting that the fair board is reviewing comments, suggestions, concerns, etc., to improve the fair. 

First up was Sarah Holloway who spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting. She expressed a comment that had been made to the county commissioners regarding having an unbiased vet at fair. The comments were made to the commissioners during their Sept. 2 meeting.  Holloway explained that the vet clinic she works for had nothing to gain if an animal stays or leaves the fairgrounds. Holloway was told that the state veterinarian looked at the animal in question plus another vet was consulted via phone. Therefore, unbiased vets were a part of the situation. 

She added that there is a cost to have vets on the grounds 24/7 and it is impractical in our small area.

Holloway also addressed having a quarantine pen on the grounds. She stated there is a reason state fair no longer has such a pen. “If an animal has to be quarantined at fair, that animal has no business being on the fairgrounds period. That is health certificates are mandatory.” She gave an example of if an animal has strangles, quarantined or not, it will impact the other animals on the property. 

Holloway inquired about an apology comment that was in the same commissioner story regarding this event at the fair. The complaining party stated that Fair Chair Rebecca Bates had told her that the fair board was hasty and would apologize in an executive session at a future meeting. 

Bates did not address the question until later in the meeting after an executive session for personnel. 

 Katrina Zeller also spoke about the situation that happened at this fair. She quoted a rule from the State Fair book that she feels addresses how situations should be handled. It said in part that each exhibitor must cooperate with security personnel and the Wyoming State Fair regarding policies and regulations between exhibitors. If an exhibitor fails to do so the fair management may cancel the exhibitor’s entries, may forfeit awards or premiums or both and may require the exhibitor to remove his or her exhibits from the grounds.”  Zeller continued that perhaps the county should implement a similar rule at this county fair. She left of a copy of that rule & another from item listed in the state fair book regarding youth leaders conduct. Again, with thoughts it could be added to Big Horn County’s Fair book. 

Zeller, who was also on the agenda presented a letter to the board with concerns and possible solutions. A few of her concerns were addressed by board member Tracy Haley and UW Educator Gretty Gasvoda as the comments dealt with Junior Show Awards given by the Junior Livestock Committee Board.   Both Haley and Gasvoda are on that board.  

After addressing another of the concerns Zeller brought, Bates thanked Zeller for time she took writing the concerns. Bates continued that the amount of time for the fair board to address that evening would be lengthy and that she didn’t believe any of the board could answer all of them without doing research. 

Bates went on to state that at the previous month’s meeting, the board discussed looking at policies and procedures to tighten them up. She reminded people that the board are all volunteers with busy lives too. Most of them are busy during fair too. Her preference would be for the board to take the letter home to review it and then get back to Zeller with answers. 

Haley added that she is a rule follower herself. While it is hard to police everything, she is a true believer in good rules and enforcing good rules. 

Bates reiterated that last month the board discussed how to do help the superintendents with a pre-fair meeting to discuss expectations, authority and each superintendent will be assigned a board member.  The board wants the superintendents to feel supported. They also want fair to be fair, a good time and to have the kids come back. Zeller indicated she was ok with coming back. Bates asked fair manager Catherine Foss to make sure it was added to next month’s agenda. The board also reviewed proposed changes to the Fair Book. 

EXECUTIVE SESSION

An executive session was called for to discuss personnel. Upon return from the session Bates stated they would not discuss what was talked about during the session. She went on to say, “It went out that I made an apology. My apology was based on our maybe hasty reaction at our last meeting. That we shouldn’t have maybe addressed it in a public comment the way we did and make a decision based on that. We should have taken time to hear a second side of the story and then taken it into an executive session when we could have discussed it. Our outcome may have been the same anyway. I can’t answer that. I spoke as me, not as a board. So it was never in any sort of relation to people that were involved or anything. So, I just want to clarify that was my apology. That was my apology was that maybe we didn’t handle it as best or as professionally as we could have.” 

She added that going forward the board is going to do their best to make changes. 

In other items, the fair board meeting for October was moved to Oct. 1 at 6:30 p.m. The board is considering changing the bylaws to first Wednesdays of the month

• Foss presented the financial report. 

• Foss presented a fair recap.  All the superintendents turned in positives, negatives and suggestions. She broke down some of the negatives and the positives for the board. Premium checks have been cut. 

•Thank you cards were mailed out to superintendents and advertisers. 

• Two superintendents are needed for rabbit and poultry. One for each. 

• Big Horn County Fair Royalty will be in the Greybull Holidazzle parade. 

• July 27-August 2 are the 2026 fair dates.