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Health officials prepare for the Canfield Fair
The mission is to attempt to ensure that people have a safe, wholesome and healthy fair experience.
CANFIELD — Mix together several hundred thousand people and 3,000 or 4,000 animals, stir in some 200 food stands and end-of-August heat, and you have a brew that keeps county health officials hopping at the Canfield Fair.
Working behind the scenes of the annual six-day extravaganza, Mahoning County District Board of Health sanitarians’ primary task is to make sure the food vendors are properly licensed and inspected at least once during the fair.
“Our mission, in the broadest sense, is to attempt to ensure that people can go to the fair and have a safe, wholesome and healthy experience, whether eating or petting animals,” said Rick Setty, head of the county health department’s environmental health division.
Sanitarians also look for other issues, such as broken water or sewage lines around the food vendors.
“We want to make sure all the units are running their sewage into a dump unit and that back flow valves are working properly so there is no possibility that contaminated water can get into the potable supply,” Setty said.
In previous years, the fairgrounds were divided into sectors and two sanitarians assigned to each.
This year, however, the health department experienced a reduction in force because of reduced funding and there will be only one sanitarian for each sector, Setty said.
“We want to provide a quality venue, and the best way to make sure food is not contaminated is through thorough inspections,” said Bev Fisher, fair manager and member of the county health board.
Also, according to the fair’s Web site, restrooms have been upgraded with liquid soap dispensers and electric hand dryers, and a new restroom was constructed at the South Pony Ring.
Setty said the health department is also part of the incident command system set up for the fair so that all entities, including safety forces and fair officials, are organized and can communicate and work together if something happens requiring joint action.