Sanders County forced to cancel popular fair due to COVID-19 virus

No fair!

Those two words summed up the results and the feelings, either way, of most of those who attended a public meeting Thursday night during which the Sanders County Commissioners and their counterparts on the County Board of Health voted 4-1 to cancel this year’s Sanders County Fair.

With County commissioners Tony Cox and Carol Brooker joining Health Board members Dr. Bob Gregg and Dr. Jack Lulack voting to cancel the fair due to health concerns related to the Co-vid 19 pandemic, the long running fair and rodeo, along with the popular demolition derby event, were cancelled.

County Commissioner Glen Magera cast the lone vote in favor of proceeding with the Fair, which was scheduled to run during the Labor Day holiday.

The vote came after several of those in attendance voiced serious concerns about crowds spreading the virus which has in recent weeks shown a significant increase in cases throughout Montana as well as neighboring counties and states.

“This was all coming together very quickly and things seemed to be improving (reduced cases of COVID-19),” said Commissioner Cox. “Then everything went the other way and things that would have worked didn’t”

The decision followed a report on the recent Monster Truck event, which attracted approximately 2,000 fans during its two-session run on Independence Day. While no reports of any virus-related spikes have as of yet reported from that event, those against staging the fair were clearly concerned about the risks involved.

“This is an airborne disease,” Dr. Lulack flatly stated. “All those who attend can’t hold their breath.”

Among those who expressed concern with the potential cancellation of the Fair was Fair Board member Kim Bergstrom.

“We were charged with bringing the fair forward,” Bergstrom said. “We’ve put in a lot of hours, spent a lot of time and have done everything reasonable to protect the public.

“Just say so I we are not going forward with this,” she implored the Commissioners. “If you are not going to go forward with the Fair, just do it.”

Commissioner Magera also expressed confidence the Fair could be held as planned.

“There was a communications gap here,” Magera said. “My thought was that if there were things the health board didn’t like, let’s do what we can to change, we attempted to work together.”

For Commissioner Brooker, cancelling the fair came down to protecting all involved. Booker likened the Fair situation to that of all the high schools sports and other events that were cancelled during the initial stages of the pandemic.

“We are trying to protect ourselves,” she said. “Bringing thousands of people into the county at this time means children could be most affected. I’ve received lots of letters against having the fair.

“In my mind, I love the fair, the rodeo and the money it brings to the county,” Brooks said. “But I just can’t see doing this at this time.”

Brooks also pointed out liability risks to the county which would not have insurance coverage for disease related incidents if the Fair were held as planned.

Commissioner Gregg, a retired veterinarian, echoed those concerns.

“To me, my community is what I’m most concerned about,” Gregg said. “If everything (regarding the virus) was better I’d say let’s go on with it. But with things the way they are, I just don’t think we should have it.”

Fair Board Chairman Randy Woods said the worst part of cancelling the Fair would be the wasted hours and efforts put in by a host of volunteers and other participants. He also worried about the financial effects that would come with not having the Fair.

“What will make up for the loss of funds from the Fair?” Woods asked the panel. “I have been working on the demolition derby part of the event since February, traveled across the state in doing so and all the spots for the derby have been filled.”

Woods noted that much could be learned and improved from the recent Monster Truck event. Efforts to keep things clean and keep people involved in social distancing were not always successful but improvements to those efforts can be made.

Commissioner Cox intoned that a reasonable thing to consider given the loss of revenue from the fair would be to use the opportunity and funds that would otherwise be spent to put on the fair to continue to improve the fairgrounds.

A group of health officials, including Dr. Greg Hanson, CEO of Clark Fork Valley hospital, Nick Lawyer, PA, and Shawn Sorenson, a County Health official all spoke in favor of the shutdown, pointing to recent case increases and projections for future cases if the trends continue as they are.

“Continuing with the Fair and maintaining public health safety would be an impossible task under the current circumstances,” Hansen said. “Social distancing is a hard thing to do, no one likes to be told what to do or be forced to do so.”

For this year, COVID-19 is an unfair winner.