Larimer County Fair board faces fee fracas

By JoAn Bjarko
North Forty News

Fees announced for the new Larimer County Fairgrounds raised the ire of many county residents in March, causing the fair board to reverse its plan to charge 4-H members exhibiting at the county fair.

Each 4-H member will get a free pass with two free companion passes, said fair board president Gary Hausman. The 4-H leaders and fair superintendents will get one companion pass along with their free passes, he added. There will also be no parking fees charged during the county fair in August.

"The whole idea of a fair revolves around 4-H," Hausman noted.

The general public, however, will have to pay this year. An adult pass will cost $5 a day. Children and senior citizens will be admitted for $3. Fairgoers can also buy a six-day adult pass for $20. The six-day pass for children 12 and under is $10. Those multi-day passes must be purchased by July 20.

This year's county fair runs from Aug. 5 through 10 with pre-fair activities beginning July 30. This is the first year for the fair at The Ranch, the new Larimer County Fairgrounds and Events Complex located on the east side Interstate 25 between Loveland and Fort Collins.

Fair manager Bob Holt noted that the staff is facing many changes with the move to new facilities. At the old fairgrounds, the program operated on 40 acres, but the new fairgrounds has 200 acres, Holt noted. The county fair budget alone is twice as large at $500,000, he added.

On the fair entertainment side, Holt is trying to book two headliner concerts in addition to an all-day, pre-fair event with local bands that will be showcased by Ty England. Neither concert fees nor rodeo fees have been set.

The county's budget for all operations at the new fairgrounds is set with $5.2 million in anticipated revenue and $4.6 million in estimated expenses, according to county budget manager Bob Keister. The budget includes $267,232 of general fund tax revenue that county commissioners opted to contribute to the fairgrounds as they have in past years, he said, "to get the fairgrounds off to a good start."

The county's overall financial model for the fairgrounds, however, is that some events generate surplus revenue so that other events can have some fee relief.

"It's all a matter of financial estimates, and that's kind of tough this first year," Keister said.