Fillmore County Fair comes under scrutiny

By News Team
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Fri, Nov 15th, 2002
Posted in Features

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Approximately 70 people turned out for the Fillmore County Ag Society annual meeting on Thursday, November 7, at the Fillmore County Office Building. Many of those in attendance came to talk about how to improve the Fillmore County Fair.

Larry Miller of rural Mabel talked about how successful the Houston County Fair is in comparison to the Fillmore County Fair.

�Houston County has about the same population as Fillmore County, but their fair is full of commercial exhibitors, many vendors and a large carnival,� Miller said. �We need to ask ourselves �what do they do there that we are not doing�?�

Miller urged people to get involved in order to make the county fair a success.

Fillmore County Ag Society Chairman Darrell Erickson talked about some of the problems with last year�s carnival. Erickson said that the carnival company overbooked venues and some of the rides went to a different town other than Preston.

�We have a different carnival lined up for next year,� Erickson said, noting that the county fair will be moved up to the week of July 15-19 to accommodate the schedule of the new carnival company. �We have them signed on for the next two years.�

Others talked critically about the rodeo grandstand show. One woman said that the rodeo company�s loudspeakers were so poor that it made following the event difficult.�There are better rodeos out there,� rodeo performer Todd Peterson of Preston said, referring to J&S Rodeo Company, who is signed on for the next two years.

Erickson said that they have talked with the rodeo company about some of the problems and expect that things will change.

�If it doesn�t improve next year, we can probably get out of the second year of the contract,� Erickson said.

New Board Members

Three incumbent Ag Society directors were defeated in their re-election bids.

Ron Mayer of Arendahl Township was elected to replace Darrell Erickson in District 1. In District 2, Weston Pease of Jordan Township defeated Harold Johnson. In District 3 Kathy Tesmer of York Township was chosen over Terry Rindels.

Donavon Bloomer of Fountain was elected to a term in District 4. Incumbent director Mike Schwarz declined to be nominated as a candidate.

In District 5, incumbent director Mark Aggen was elected to another term.

Following the annual meeting, the Ag Society held its regular meeting. Tracy Hanson of District 2 was elected Chairman of the Ag Society. Mark Aggen was chosen Vice-Chairman. Sandra Junge was appointed Secretary.

Donald Redalen resigned as a director of the Ag Society. Redalen said that he had been on the board over ten years and felt the need to move on. Before doing so, he told the society that they were remiss in not thanking those officers that were stepping down for their many years of service.

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Since the annual meeting, several Ag Society Directors have also resigned from the Board. This includes Elwyn Mensink, Luther Olson and Dave Sikkink. Sandy Junge also resigned her appointment as Secretary of the Ag Society.

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