Fair board gathering itself for legislative tug of war

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BY ART HOVEY / Lincoln Journal Star

KEARNEY — Soon enough, the Nebraska State Fair Board will be back on treacherous turf.

They will be confronting state lawmakers, university officials, Lincoln business leaders and others who want them out of State Fair Park so that its 251 acres can be occupied by the university and potential private-sector partners in a technology park.

But at least through Sunday, fair board members will be among friends. Hundreds of members of county fair boards were arriving in Kearney Friday for the start of the Nebraska Association of Fair Managers Convention.

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The Nebraska State Fair Board will be confronting state lawmakers, university officials, Lincoln business leaders and others who want them out of State Fair Park so that its 251 acres can be occupied by the university and potential private-sector partners in a technology park. (LJS File)

The Nebraska State Fair Board will be confronting state lawmakers, university officials, Lincoln business leaders and others who want them out of State Fair Park so that its 251 acres can be occupied by the university and potential private-sector partners in a technology park. (LJS File)

A year ago, said Ken Killion, county fair officials voted 50-0 to back their state fair counterparts to do whatever they thought needed doing to make the state event a success.

Look for more of the same sort of open-ended support this year, said Killion, Marquette resident and executive secretary to the county fair group.

“We’re not going to try to micro-manage the state fair board from here,” he said.

The message from Jerry Fitzgerald to those who want to move the fair wasn’t quite as warm and fuzzy as he got ready to preside at a state fair board meeting in Kearney that was largely devoted to positions on legislative bills.

“This board is not going to bond itself for $30 million to go to a place we don’t want to go,” said State Fair Board Chairman Fitzgerald, of Gering. “We are not going to do that.”

The $30 million figure is what advocates of moving the fair want its board to contribute to a $60 million package that is often mentioned as part of a deal to move the state fair several miles to the east next to the Lancaster Event Center.

Apart from that package, Grand Island and North Platte leaders also have expressed interest in hosting the fair.

A sense of direction could  emerge from the 2008 legislative session, where Lincoln Sen. Ron Raikes already has proposed turning the fairgrounds over to the university.

The fair board voted unanimously Friday to oppose Raikes’ bill, which is supported by every lawmaker from the Lincoln area.

The board decided to back two other fair-related bills:

n One offered by Bayard Sen. Phil Erdman, chairman of the Agriculture Committee, would require the university to pay at least $30 million for State Fair Park.

n The other, offered by the full committee, would delete from state law the requirement that Lincoln be the fair’s host city.

The bills are expected to be scheduled for hearings before the Agriculture Committee on Feb. 28, the last potential hearing date of the session.

A third ag committee proposal  would change the makeup of the fair board and specifically remove a requirement that the University of Nebraska-Lincoln chancellor be one of its members. The current chancellor, Harvey Perlman, strongly supports UNL’s push to take over the fairgrounds. Perlman did not attend Friday’s meeting of the fair board.

The board decided to stay neutral on the board membership bill, but members had much stronger feelings about Raikes’ intentions.

In recommending opposition, board member Sallie Atkins of Halsey noted that Raikes did not include any financial compensation in the details of LB1044.

Atkins and other members, including Van Neidig of Battle Creek, also took issue with Raikes’ proposal to create a six-member commission to decide where to put the fair.

Atkins called it “a little scary” that six people “will determine the future of a complex entity that they’re really not familiar with.”

In another vote, fair board members said they should be allowed to determine a suitable alternate site if and when they are handed adequate funds for moving the fair.

Neidig, one of the board’s most outspoken members, said prior to the meeting that Raikes has “knowingly ignored the interests and sentiments of the people of this state — or he wouldn’t have delivered a bill like that.”

Neidig characterized the actions of Raikes and others from the Lincoln area maneuvering to move the fair as “selfish, arrogant and acting in an extremely obnoxious, unbusiness-like manner.

“This is the State Fair,” he said. “This is not a Lincoln real estate transaction.”

In a telephone interview later Friday, Raikes said he certainly intended for the views of the fair board to be “considered carefully” regarding a location. He expects that “if we’re going to spend money to move the fair, whatever bills are accrued will have to be paid.”

Beyond that, “it’s certainly not my intent to unnecessarily offend or treat anyone arrogantly,” he said. “On the other hand, there are aspects of my job that are tough.”

That includes “making the calls that I think are the right calls decisively.”

The focus of attention in Kearney will shift Saturday toward the agenda of county fair officials and to election of two of the seven members of the state fair board who are elected by district.

Joe Andrews, a five-year veteran of the board from Bassett, said he will seek re-election to a three-year term. Board member Steve Rogers of Gibbon must step down because of term limits.

Candidates to replace him and to compete with Andrews are unlikely to be known until they step forward at district meetings.

Rogers, who has served on different versions of the state fair board since 1989, leaves with mixed feelings.

“The fair has been in Lincoln for 106 years,” he said. “Nobody in the state of Nebraska knows of it in any other location.”

Reach Art Hovey at 473-7223 or at ahovey@journalstar.com