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Three easels display proposed site plans for the Lincoln County Commons in the board of commissioners’ chambers in 2018. New fair board members will have a chance help implement the redevelopment plan approved in 2019. (File photo)

Three easels display proposed site plans for the Lincoln County Commons in the board of commissioners’ chambers in 2018. New fair board members will have a chance help implement the redevelopment plan approved in 2019. (File photo)

After three appointed members served as a “caretaker” body for more than a decade following a mass resignation due to collapsed funding, applicants from the community at large will have a chance to help oversee the annual fair, as well as redevelopment of the county fairgrounds in Newport.

Commissioner Claire Hall said during her report for Wednesday’s regular meeting of the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners that she and the other two fair board members would step down during the coming months.

“In 2009, when the then-serving fair board resigned, I was persuaded, along with then-Public Works Director Jim Buisman and then recently retired director of the Oregon Coast Council for the Arts, Frank Geltner, to accept a one-year appointment to the fair board,” Hall said. “That was 13 years ago, and it’s sort of turned out to be like the Hotel California: You can check out but you can never leave.”

According to the minutes from the Feb. 4, 2009, meeting of the board of commissioners, Kiera Morgan, chair of the fair board at the time, announced that she and the four other fair board members would resign effective the next month, citing cuts in state funding, lack of any full-time paid support and “animosity” and general lack of support from the community.

Commissioners appointed a blue-ribbon committee a few months later to evaluate the future of the fair and fairgrounds. Its conclusions included the need to enhance the facilities to enable them to generate more revenue year-round, and to rebrand the fairgrounds as the Lincoln County Commons to more clearly designate it as a multi-purpose venue.

Commissioners later formed a visioning committee to create a roadmap for redevelopment. The revised master plan for the commons, estimated in 2019 to cost $10.2 million, includes construction of a new barn, a 20,000 square-foot pavilion to replace indoor and outdoor arena facilities, renovation of a building for 4-H use, creation of green spaces and hardscape, and replacement of the 15,000-square-foot exhibition hall with a new structure of similar size.

In the interim, the board of commissioners also entered an agreement with Oregon State University’s Lincoln County Extension service to manage the fair itself, relaunched and rebranded in 2015 as the “New Lincoln County Fair.”

“Now that we’re finally on the cusp of bringing a redevelopment plan for the commons to fruition, that seems like a good time to move from a caretaker fair board to a fair board that is more actively involved in advising and helping to oversee that redevelopment process,” Hall said.

A new memorandum of agreement between commissioners and the fair board signed in March calls for a membership of up to five from among the following interests: land-based agriculture, youth education, exhibitors, vendors, local businesses, tourism promotion or visitor services, ocean science, commercial fishing, recreational fishing, other ocean-use sectors and additional interests as determined by the board of commissioners. The memorandum gives the fair board exclusive control of the commons during the fair, while the county administrator or designee will manage the facility during the rest of the year.

“We want this to be an orderly transition,” Hall said. “Mr. Buisman, Mr. Geltner and I will not be exiting all at once,” but rather one at time during the next few months as new members are appointed by commissioners.

Fair board members serve three-year terms, and the board meets monthly. An application can be found at tinyurl.com/ykzvzn6b.

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