Carroll County Fair asks board for $17,000 to cover insurance and prize costs

Dan Behrens, the newly seated president of the Carroll County Fair board, presented the Fair's FY27 funding request and urged supervisors to increase county support from recent years' $13,500 to $17,000. He said the request reflects higher insurance premiums (citing $31,200 paid last year), increased payouts to exhibitors, and the need to promote youth programming and non-livestock projects.

Behrens described volunteer-run operations, the Fair's goal to broaden activities beyond livestock as local agricultural participation has declined, and efforts to add features such as a covered 'family fun zone' to improve year-to-year reliability despite weather. He noted the fair returns over half of its funds to exhibitors and that key revenue drivers include grandstand events and figure-8 racing; cancellations or weather-related losses to those events can materially affect the fair's finances.

Supervisors asked operational questions — how gate and race revenues are tracked and whether the fair has contingency plans for carnival or vendor cancellations. Behrens said the fair keeps count of wristband sales and gate figures and is working to improve data collection. The board did not vote on the funding at the meeting and asked for additional detail during the continued budget process.