By DOUG SCHMITZ
Iowa Correspondent

CRESCO, Iowa — For the first time in its 61-year history, the North Iowa Fair will be scaled down to exclusively become a 4-H event, North Iowa Fair Assoc. (NIFA) board members announced this in December 2010, in preparation for the 2011 fair.

“I do not know who made the decision, but I assume their board had to at least discuss it,” said Tom Barnes, executive director of the Assoc. of Iowa Fairs (AIF), headquartered in Cresco, about this summer’s first-ever scaled-down fair, slated to debut July 20-24.

It usually attracts an estimated 40,000 visitors over its five-day run. In an official statement last December, Dennis Higgins, NIFA president, said while other activities may be added, the 2011 fair will primarily focus on 4-H activities and exhibits – with no further plans to book entertainment or other major attractions – as part of the NIFA’s effort to trim operational costs.
Although the AIF doesn’t exercise any specific jurisdiction over such decisions as to how individual Iowa counties operate their respective fairs, Barnes said this type of decision must have its board’s approval.

Established in 1950 and located on the North Iowa fairgrounds in Mason City in Cerro Gordo County since 1956, the NIFA has been carrying a heavy debt load in recent years, according to local media reports. Last year, the fair owed the Cerro Gordo County 4-Hers $3,848.25 in prize money from awards and ribbons the youth had won at the 2010 fair.

Last October, four local businesses formed an ad hoc committee and donated nearly $4,000 to pay the 4-Hers the prize money they had earned. One of those businesses – Kinseth Hospitality, which runs Best Western Holiday Lodge and Bennigan’s Restaurant in Clear Lake, and Clarion Inn (formerly Holiday Inn) of Mason City – last July pulled out of a $660,000 deal it made with the NIFA to buy 2.3 acres to build a hotel east of the entrance to the North Iowa fairgrounds.

Despite the NIFA upping the offer to $700,000, Kinseth backed out of the deal, while negotiations with the NIFA were still under way, when owners of Holiday Inn Express across the street broke ground on the land formerly occupied by the Hanford Inn. Local officials said it was a major blow to the north-central Iowa city of more than 27,000 residents, but city leaders said they hope to continue future land negotiations.

This year, the Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors agreed to lend the NIFA $71,000 to help pay off its debts, with the condition that the fairgrounds land was sold and the money from the sale given directly to the board of supervisors.

The NIFA also owes Mason City $17,000 in police overtime payments it agreed to pay for work during an annual fireworks convention at the fairgrounds last year, as well as for past-due water bills, according to the Mason City Globe-Gazette.

While Higgins refused to comment to Farm World on the fair’s severe debt problems, he told the Globe-Gazette last December “the North Iowa Fair Board is committed for the future to producing the five-day annual North Iowa Fair at a zero or minimal financial loss.”

Barnes said even though local and county residents aren’t exactly backing the NIFA’s new scaled-down fair, “at least their board is doing something for the youth.

“This fair has great potential, just by where it is located,” he said. “It has the population and area that could support it. (But) from what I have read in their local media – and have heard firsthand from others – the community does not really support this fair.

“The reasons are many, and I am not going to put blame anywhere. It takes a strong board that believes in what they are elected to do, and in my opinion, a ‘working board’ is better for a fair.”

Moreover, Barnes said, NIFA board members “better understand what it takes to not only put on a fair but also to maintain a county fairground.

“It is easy to sit at a monthly meeting and hear how things are going, but a board member will truly understand if he or she actually puts forth an effort,” he said.

“And a community is more willing to get behind a fair if its board members are visible, not only during the fair but also during the year, doing whatever needs done. A good board makes for a good fair and both of these will attract community support.”

The announcement to transition the financially-strapped fair to an exclusive 4-H event came three months before the former fair manager, Wanda Kruse of Rockwell, was found guilty of second-degree theft. She was ordered in March to pay a $200 fine, plus more than $500 in court costs for charges stemming from theft allegations made against her this February.

An investigation by the Mason City Police Department and the NIFA alleged Kruse had stolen more than $3,000 worth of property, which was later found at her home, all bought with money from the fair board.

Kruse could have faced up to five years in prison and a $7,500 fine, had she been convicted.