ALPENA - Midway through 2011 the Alpena County Board of Commissioners decided to take operational control of the day-to-day operations of the Alpena County Fairgrounds. With the exception of the county fair, which the board continued to allow the current fair board to oversee, the county, and particularly Maintenance Superintendent Wes Wilder, has cut expenses and come out in the black for 2011.
Commissioner Mark Hall said Wilder is the key to the improvement in finances for the fairgrounds.
"It appears, and I say appear because not all the bills are in yet, that we were able to offset operational costs by somewhere around $5,000," Hall said. "We're very satisfied with the positive outcome of the decisions we have made when it comes to the financial situation."
Hall said the improvement of the financial situation is a direct result of the county being more involved in how the fairgrounds is run.
"The fair board has worked very hard to keep the fairgrounds going, but I would say having the day-to-day operations directly under our superintendent, Wes Wilder, obviously has yielded a positive outcome, both in how the place looks, as well as how the financial statement looks," Hall said.
The main objective of the county is to return the fair to how it was before the fair board and 4-H formed two separate events and to continue for it to be a staple each summer. Hall said many other counties and towns have lost fairs and he doesn't want to see the same happen here. He said in order to continue a successful fair, the fairgrounds as a whole needs to continue to be fiscally responsible.
"We have to maintain our mission and our mission is to keep a county fair here in Alpena and not have it be like it is in other parts of the state where they have dropped off," Hall said. "We knew right out of the gate that the fair board was going to be able to deal with some of the big financial needs at the facility, obviously energy costs is one of the areas that still will have to be worked on and again having Wes and his staff there every day. I think having them there every day is going to help avoid some of these big ticket expenses."
Steve Schulwitz can be reached via e-mail at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5689.