Eastern Idaho State Fair grapples with decision to cancel

Weeks after the North Idaho State Fair and Western Idaho Fair cancelled their 2020 events, the status of the Eastern Idaho State Fair was still under discussion in the middle of July, less than two months from its scheduled opening date of Sept. 4.
After the next largest event in the area, the Shoshone-Bannock Pow Wow, was canceled by the Fort Hall Business Council, shutting down one of the largest money-makers for the Reservation, the EISF board voted to hold the fair in the face of opposition for counties, many local residents and the City of Blackfoot.
The EISF board voted 4-to-2 to go ahead with the fair at its monthly meeting on June 25.
"We are optimistic that things are going to continue to improve in the environment of COVID," Fair Manager Brandon Bird told the East Idaho News after the board's vote, "and we think people will be excited about an opportunity to come together at the end of summer and hold this wonderful event."
Attendance at the EISF in 2018 and 2019 was just under a quarter-million people. The nine-day event is the joint enterprise of 16 counties in eastern Idaho. The elected commissioners of those counties appoint the members of the six-person board that governs the fair.
The first event held at the site of the current fairgrounds was in 1902 and was originally just a local event. Within 20 years, it grew into a joint fair for Bannock, Bingham and Bonneville Counties.In the fullness of time, it became the 16-county enterprise it is today.
The local debate in the Blackfoot area on whether to hold the fair is a microcosm of the current nationwide contention over every fact, argument, opinion and myth about COVID-19 currently in circulation.
Fair board votes to hold the fair
The fair board meeting lasted more than three hours and was visited by some drama.
Justin Oleson, a fair board member from Bingham County, moved to proceed with the fair. According to the Rexburg Standard Journal, Oleson questioned the validity of the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 being reported. He also stated his opinion that the virus was not as serious as it was claimed to be. He also stated that COVID-19 was a political tool and the object of media manipulation.
Blackfoot Mayor Marc Carroll requested that the board cancel the fair due to public safety concerns regarding the potential spread of COVID-19. Also attending the meeting were Blackfoot City Attorney Garrett Sandow and the Bingham County Commissioners. Blackfoot has been the home of the fairgrounds since 1902. The mayor and the Southeast Public Health District each have the power under Idaho law to stop the event in an emergency situation.
"I have received over 150 communications from the business owners and residents of Blackfoot, and all but three of them are against holding the fair this year," Carroll told the Idaho Business Review. "Local businesses who have contacted me want the fair canceled this year despite all the money it brings to Blackfoot."
Carroll also said he remained open to allowing the fair to go forward if the EISF board and management could present the city with a workable plan on how they intend to keep fair patrons safe from the COVID-19 virus. In the two weeks since then, fair management, Blackfoot and SIPH have met several times to discuss the practicality of a plan that would allow the fair to open.
According to the mayor, at the June 25 meeting, there was some resistance from the board to the creation and enforcement of such a plan. In a press release from the City of Blackfoot dated June 29, Carroll wrote: "We have not seen a plan as to how the EISF will address things like distancing, personalhygiene, and sanitizing. One Board member said that writing an unenforceable plan was awaste of time and that people had to take personal responsibility if they attend the fair, (that) if folksare afraid of the potential exposure, then they should just stay home.
"The Fair Board has lost sight of the fact that the City of Blackfoot is the hosting location for the Fair,and all of the Fair Board and the sponsoring County Commissioners leave EISF and go to their home communities at the end of the day, and leave our city to be potentially ground zero forthe onset of the COVID disease ... It would be almost impossible to deal with thepotential contamination in the community if a fair-going virus carrier stops at the PotatoMuseum, or a restaurant, gas station, or to visit a friend or family member. The Blackfootcommunity members who attend the Fair, work at the Fair, or come in contact with someonewho has been at the Fair may exponentially expose others in the community.
"I am just trying tosay that staying home from the Fair may not necessarily protect an individual from contractingCOVID if it gets out through community spread."
COVID-19 public safety plan
Carroll stated: "I am willing to evaluate the EISF COVID operations plan inconjunction with the Southeast Idaho Public Health Department. EISF may be able to author anapprovable plan ... If we do not have an approvable plan, I will exercise mayoral authoritygranted in State Code Title 50 Chapter 3, Title 46 Chapter 10, and the Idaho State Constitution; and not allow the Eastern Idaho State Fair to proceed."
The fairgrounds were the host for the Idaho State High School Rodeo Finals in the middle of June. The event went forward with a COVID-19 prevention plan in place that limited attendance and laid out rigorous masking, sanitation and distancing rules. Though it was a smaller event, the success of the rodeo opened the door to the possibility that the fair could achieve a similar result.
The mayor asked that EISF management submit a plan by July 6, which it did.
Carroll and SIPH Director Maggie Mann met with Eastern Idaho State Fair Manager Brandon Bird on July 8 to discuss the plan. The fair delivered a revised plan to Blackfoot and SIPH the next day.Carroll told the Idaho Business Review that the city and SIPH were in the process of reviewing the revised plan and he was hoping to meet with Mann to discuss it.
"I'm waiting on the input from Maggie Mann, who is the head of the SIPH, before making a decision whether to accept or reject the plan," Carroll told the Idaho Business Review on July 10. "Maggie is very busy right now, and I've not had the chance to speak with her yet, but I hope to on Monday (July 13)."
The final results of Blackfoot's consultation with Mann and its decision with respect to the EISF were conveyed the evening of July 14, but the EISF organization has not yet released the outcome.
The Eastern Idaho State Fair did not respond to inquiries from the Idaho Business Review.
Vendors, acts and services bow out
In addition to a coronavirus prevention plan that Blackfoot will accept, the 2020 fair has other obstacles in its path. First, there will be no midway. Butler Amusements, which provides the carnival rides, canceled its appearance this year. Bird, the fair manager, has tried to find a replacement carnival ride firm but has failed to book one. Some vendors have also withdrawn from this year's fair. The Pocatello Women’s Prison canceled its contract for garbage and trash pickup. The contractor for restroom cleaning and maintenance has also pulled out.
Musical acts have yet to be announced and should have been made public a couple of weeks ago. At a July 1 meeting with the Bingham County Commissioners, Bird reported that the fair only had one concert act booked. Nothing was booked for Wednesday night or for opening night. The lack of an opening night act is a concern because it usually drives the highest attendance and ticket proceeds on the first weekend of the fair.
Local law enforcement has also pushed back on the fair going forward. Bingham CountySheriff Craig Rowland shared his concerns from a policing point of view at the July 1 meeting. He expressed concern that his officers could bring COVID-19 with them into the county jail from the fair. He also remarked that the jail had limited capacity to isolate anyone who his department or the City of Blackfoot might need to detain, included fairgoers, which would again endanger those already incarcerated. To date, Bingham County Jail has had no COVID-19 cases.
Local reaction
On Facebook, unlike the town's usually friendly discussions, this round of local opinion sharing has been contentious. A review of the Facebook commentary on Blackfoot-oriented groups reflected ongoing and persistent themes in the commentary, which started immediately after the EISF meeting and have been ongoing. One often-repeated set of comments made by multiple people on the Life in Blackfoot group were variations of this post by Blackfoot resident Brian Hammond: "If you don’t want to go, you should’t be forced to go.If you want to go, you should be able to go.If you want to shame and ridicule someone who does want to go or work there, well then you’re a terrible person for wanting to control someone else’s life."
Such a post is not the usual fare in Blackfoot, where one news organization last year banned a set of commentators on Facebook for ad hominem attacks and profanity.
Along with the individual rights argument were a handful of Facebook and Twitter comments that COVID-19 was a hoax or that its severity and fatality rate were either fake news or not as bad as the flu.
In opposition were those who argued that canceling the fair would prevent a widespread outbreak of COVID-19 in Blackfoot and Bingham County. Many posted their personal fears because of their age or underlying conditions.
Blackfoot resident Casey Jones wrote: "I’m really tired of people talking about those of us who are immunocompromised like we are expendable. I’m a veteran, a business owner, a volunteer, a home owner; (I) pay my taxes just like everyone else. You can’t tell me the four hours someone would spend at the fair is worth more then a life."
Several posted their opinion that this year's fair, even if it went forward, would hardly be worth attending because of the number of cancellations. Montie Nafus commented on the EISF: "No entertainment, no carny rides, no way to enforce social distancing, no garbage pick-up, some vendors canceled, no porta-john service. What else do you need not to have the fair? Sounds like no fair to me. Get real, fair board."

CREDIT: Catie Clark