Fair board proposes July fair date switch

By Ed Runyan

The fairgrounds can better withstand rain now than in 1981.

BAZETTA — Historically, the rainy season always seemed to come around the Fourth of July in Trumbull County — during Trumbull County Fair week.

In 1981, after doing some research into rainfall levels, the county fair board switched the event to the week after July Fourth.

Problem was, that week wasn’t any better.

In fact, after 27 years of using that week, the fair board is ready to switch back to the July Fourth week again, come mud or high water.

Richard Roscoe, fair board president in 1981 as well as today, said the board approved the change at a recent meeting and now needs ratification from the Ohio Department of Agriculture.

He expects the change to be approved since it won’t conflict with the county fair for any adjacent counties. He is aware of some local festivals, such as the one in Newton Falls, for example, that are July Fourth week.

“We were having two to three days of rain every year,” Roscoe recalls of county fairs before 1982.

“Some years, we had five tractors in the parking lot at 1 a.m. pulling and pushing cars out of the parking lot,” he recalls. “I still get comments.”

In 27 years of using the week after July Fourth, Roscoe says he believes rainfall levels have been less than the July Fourth week, but the move may have hurt attendance nonetheless.

Roscoe says he thinks more people attended the fair before 1982 because it was a holiday week, meaning more people had time off from work.

The fair’s all-time attendance record of 87,000 was set in 1981, the last year the fair took place July Fourth week, Roscoe said.

Roscoe admits he doesn’t know whether the record attendance was because of the timing or because of the entertainment provided that year.

The band Alabama and singer Louise Mandrell played the fair that year because Roscoe got them at a bargain price of $5,500 each.

Attendance figures in recent years have been around 55,000 to 60,000.

If the rains do come again during the July Fourth week, the fair board is better prepared this time.

Since 1981, the board has improved drainage throughout the fairgrounds parking areas, put down recycled asphalt in some areas and used new asphalt in other areas to provide 40 to 45 handicapped parking spaces.

In all, the fairgrounds have about 2,000 parking spaces stabilized with asphalt, Roscoe said.

runyan@vindy.com