Longton Free Fair

[Diane Amberg]

Ya just might have something there!

[Dale Smith]

You know, that really is not a bad idea.  Living in Atlanta, Georgia, where a fifty mile drive doesn't even get you to the other side of town, I think the distance between Sedan, Howard, Moline, Longton, etc. is not that significant.  Banding together for one big fair would make for one heck of a fair.  Might even be able to get carnival rides!   :-)

[L Hendricks]

okay - as we have seen from the Howard City Council meeting - how do we get ideas generated from here to real life.... How can we bring the stakeholders together to have a serious conversation and everyone wins... if we don't start working together we will have no more volunteers...

[pepelect]

You will still have volunteers but they will just get loader and more opinionated.    Combining with CQ would not hurt my feelings any.  What is the internal struggle that caused them to have two fairs this year?  Were they trying to out fair us.   We could have three if Moline would get off its butt and have one also....Then we could all go to that one and have a great time.

Why do we have the fair in the hottest busiest time of the year?

What is wrong with the first of June?   

Does CQ have a fair board that we can communicate with or is it one of those insider backroom organizations?

Could we call it the HOWARD COUNTY FAIR.....!?

Don't they have a swat team down there?   Teresa they have guns.   Gun showmanship at the new and improved Howard County Fair.  Trick shooting.  Fancy hotel window shootout?  Million dollar bounty.....


Some one call Bill see if we can use the Red Buffalo Stage to have a real stage line from to EK KONNECTED to CQ.  Meander down by the Quivera Lake, gallop over by the outhouses festival grounds , through the ELK ranch, and finally rondeveous at EAGLE HEAD.  We could even take side trips to the Little house on the Praire..... but that is MG.   They are not ELK KONNECTED>........they have one of those evil "W" stores.

Big store. No Cattle......

[W. Gray]

Calling it a Howard County Fair might not be so far fetched.

After all, Sedan has the Howard County Players.

[Lookatmeknow!!]

The Extention Councils have combine as of July 1.  The Elk County and Ch. County have that is.  It is now called Rolling Plains Extention Council.  Some of the 4-H events have been combined, the Favorite Foods Show is one, and I think in the future we will be combining more.  This year at the Elk County 4-H Horse show there were only 7 contestants.  They were all Junior showman, or girls I should say.  I think we have more younger 4-Hers that will be taking horses next year.  But it was really sad not to see more kids at this event.  Even the Favorite Foods Show there was only 4 or 5 kids with the combination of the two counties.  I think more kids need to get involved in 4-H.  It is a wonderful thing for these kids.  My oldest has been in 4-H for 4 years now.  We don't play summer ball or do many other extra activities.  We give her a choice to choose between different things to do and she picks 4-H.  I loved 4-H.  I feel that the things that I learned in 4-H has helped me to be a better person.  I learned to cook, sew, run a mean meeting the right way, and learned also that you can't always win but you try you best at all times. 

I wouldn't think that combining the fairs would hurt.  We used to enter items at both fairs in Elk County.  But this year, with the price of gas and being so busy, we only entered in the 4-H fair.  My younger girls enter things and the oldest does her 4-H projects.  This year they even had a younger kids showmanship contest.  The kids that participated loved it!  It made them feel like they were really special.

But I am with you guys on getting more to attract the families.  But with rising gas prices and inflation, what is there??   I personally don't really like carnival rides, and don't really like for my kids to ride them.  It makes me to nervous!!  I don't like the thought of putting my child on rides that are put up and taken down in hours.  But that is just me.  I think more family games and events for them.  The movie was GREAT!!  We had to leave early because Parker had the sheep show the next day, but my kids loved it!!  It gave them memories of watching a movie outside.

OK, that is more than my 2 cents!!!

[Tobina+1]

Well, that is part of the problem is that we need a 4-H Fair to showcase the 4-H projects, but each town also has the "Free Fair" part, too. 
One reason that the 4-H fair is in the hottest part of the summer is that traditionally allows the kids to get out of school before really starting on 4-H projects.  They can still break a steer to lead in 2 months after school gets out.  Also, most of the harvest is over so the parents can be at the fair sweating it out with the kids.  Family sweat is good.  Also, the KS State Fair is in September, and a lot of the 4-H projects at the county level can be taken to the State Fair if they qualify.  So, I'm not really how much we can really rock the 4-H boat and change that part of the fair to be in a different part of the year. 
It has been suggested that there are a few possible ways to change having multiple county fairs.  One is something Liz already noted has been tried (and failed), and that is the County Commish pulling funds.  Or only giving funds to one fair, forcing the other to try and operate with no funds.  (Note:  1 county commish is also on 1 of the fair boards).  Another thing that could happen is that the Extension District could force the 4-H agent to only have the 4-H fair at one specific location instead of allowing him to have the fair in 2 different places.  This might not force the other community to stop having a fair, but it would at least make the 4-H fair be constant and may help the betterment of the facilities at that location.  The last suggestion would be that a petition go out to put a vote on the ballot.  I have no idea if that would actually be able to "disband" the Fair Boards or make them combine into one?  Unless they are a state/county funded group, that'd be like voting to disband the Cookson card club or something, I'd think.  I don't know much about the Fair Boards.  Maybe we start another one that is the Elk County Fair Board (or the EK/CH Fair Board), and go to the county commish's for funds and go to the Dist Extension Council for letting us host the 4-H fair at X location and just take the other 2 Fair boards out of the picture for the 4-H fair?  And if they want to try and continue to have a free fair in their town, then they'll have to do so on their own?  I'd like to think of a more ammicable agreement, though.
Like maybe, just maybe, the 2 Fair Boards have a joint meeting and realize they can't continue to go it alone and agree to join forces?  Maybe I'm just an optimist.

[Dale Smith]

Tobina, as always, you have a very well thought-out and articulate posting.  I would agree that yes, you are an optimist.  But, you are also a realist!

[pepelect]

How do you get the two fair boards together in one place to have the meeting?  What would the fairs gain by doing so?   How can two depressed communities not try to work together to share resources and labor?  Have any board member said anything about what the tone is at both boards? 

Would a larger more evolved event draw more people?  Wouldn't each board only have to do half the work?  If you are using the same amount of resources and getting more bang for you buck by involving more people who loses?

[Tobina+1]

Thanks, Dale!  I visited with someone who knows a lot more than me about the suggestions for how to combine the fairs, but I tried to expand on each point.
Patrick; these are very good questions.  Anyone have any answers?  I'm not sure I even know who is on either of the boards.  Maybe someone should invite them to a central location to visit about the situation?  Who would have that authority or even just enough ranking for them to take it seriously?  Do we start visiting with some of the 4-H parents and get them to start a petition for a meeting?  There's a few on this forum who might have some insight.  Does any of the Elk Konnected action groups have enough clout yet to call for a meeting?  Does the County Commission have the authority?  Does anyone just know the Board Presidents and can just make a suggestion?
I think it needs to come from within; the 4-H clubs/parents.  They have the most stake in the game and they're the majority of the reason these fairs occur.