GREENSBURG – Decatur County Commissioners Chuck Emsweller and Mark Koors asked Decatur County Visitors Center (Tourism) to manage the Decatur County Fairgrounds and accept the responsibility of managing the Decatur County Fair starting next summer. That request came during this week’s regularly scheduled meeting of the Tourism office staff and Board of Directors, Tuesday, the Daily News reported on the surprise dissolution by the Board of Commissioners of the 21-member Fair Board, citing their lack of financial accountability for county fairs in the past and their general mismanagement of the Decatur County Fairgrounds.
Commissioners Koors and Emsweller, accompanied by Decatur County Councilwoman Deanna Burkhart, said the Fair Board was unable to produce records accounting for an estimated $30,000 to $40,000 of past year’s fair profits. They also said the Fair Board allowed the fairground properties to fall into disrepair and the assets to degrade.
A lengthy conversation ensued with Tourism asking a variety of questions concerning the responsibilities of managing the fairgrounds and the support the commissioners were willing to provide were Tourism to accept the added duties and responsibilities.
After much deliberation, the issue was tabled.
Tourism Director Phil Deiwert commented on it afterward.
“This is exciting and a bit overwhelming, but as Tourism Director I can’t accept this without approval by more Board of Directors,” Deiwert said. “I appreciate them attending our meeting and I appreciate their vote of confidence that we could successfully manage that property, schedule events for the spaces and make it profitable.”
Deiwert said that accepting the position would mean a great deal of work and “a lot of responsibility.”
It should be noted that in the interim period between Monday’s dissolution and the Wednesday Tourism meeting, the Commissioners requested that Tourism resubmit their 2022 budget proposal after cutting it by about $200,000.
“The disconnect there is troubling, confusing and disconcerting,” Deiwert said.
Deiwert said that from the Tourism Board’s perspective, there were many questions that would need to be answered before accepting the added responsibility.
“I’m competent that we could do it, manage the property and the fair successfully, but as with everything else it all comes down to money,” he said.
Deiwert said that it would be difficult for him to recommend his Board of Directors accept the proposal without a concrete expression of support from the Commissioners as well as a clear statement in regards to their expectations.
Deiwert also said the added responsibility would require additional staff as well as a guarantee of financial support while the county fair and the fairground properties were reorganized under Tourism’s care.
“There will have to be improvements to the property that will result in more revenue, but there’s going to be a gap of time until we get the grandstand built up and some of those buildings removed and improvements to the properties discussed,” Deiwert said. “And who’s going to pay for it? My Board has serious concerns about funding and the Council. It feels like the Council wants us to pay for it. The fairgrounds are not our responsibility. Historically, we promote them, but as far as maintenance and staffing and mowing the properties in summer, that’s not our responsibility.”
Deiwert finished by saying that the initial conversation went “as well as it could go,” but that there are many more questions to be answered and many discussions to have.
“It’s going to take a lot of collaboration and a lot of partnerships,” he said.
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