With summer heating up it's time for county fairs to kick off. But for those in Illinois, how to make them just as good as last year costs money.
And with Illinois' budget and pension problems county fairs are losing money and have been for years.
Forcing fairs to find new ways to keep up the grounds.
State funding for county fair maintenance budgets has not improved over the last five years since the state budget was cut in half. And that leaves counties having to perform a juggling act."
"This was split out, we had to take out a brick, and lower that so it would all come back together," says Henry County Fair President Rick Dobbels.
Emergency repairs are not uncommon for an aging fairgrounds. But Dobbels says, "that's not the way to do it but that's what we had to do in the meantime so we don't go over our budget."
The fair receives a 13-thousand dollar check from Illinois when it puts in at least 16-thousand dollars worth of work into its infrastructure. But fair treasurer Sharon Wexell says expenses are often higher.
"We pay what we have to pay or what we have money to pay," says Wexell.
The fair has to pick and choose which maintenance projects get done. But Wexell says they have to pick projects that don't require ticket prices to go up.
"The last thing we want to do is have fair goers feel like every time they walk onto the fair grounds they got to dig in their pockets for the next thing."
It's a challenge the fair is meeting. Dobbels says county businesses have donated labor and equipment to build a new water line and art barn. But it's going to take more charity to keep the fair around long term.
"I've always been a fair goer I probably go to twenty fairs a year, that's why I'm president because I want to see the fair survive."
The Henry County fair will see its full reimbursement from the state this year. However it has more money on hold that may never be reimbursed. And Henry County isn't alone.
Rock Island county's fair has seen its state support shrink by 50 percent.
The fair needs several roofs replaced on its buildings.
And it would like to repave its parking lot.
