Rain or shine, it’s Trumbull fair time

By Ed Runyan

Fair admission on the weekend is $7 this year, down from $8 in 2008.

BAZETTA — Many locals are amused by the weather reports they receive around the time of the Trumbull County Fair.

The decades-long gag goes something like this:

Person 1: “I hear it’s supposed to rain this week.”

Person 2: “Well, it’s Trumbull County Fair Week.”

Trumbull County Fair Board members got tired of the jokes, and even more tired of keeping tractors on hand until 1 a.m. to pull vehicles out of the fairgrounds’ muddy parking lots after a hard rain.

In 1981, they moved the traditional July Fourth event to one week later.

But after 27 years of using the later week, Richard Roscoe, fair board president, persuaded fellow board members last fall to change back to the July 4th week.

This year’s fair, which begins Monday, returns to the July Fourth week, ending next Sunday. Hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through next Sunday. The fairgrounds are about a mile north of state Route 305, at Hoagland-Blackstub (also known as Bazetta Road) and Everett-Hull roads.

Asked last week if he had looked yet at the weather forecast for fair week, Roscoe said no — “I’m not going to look at it, but somebody will come in and tell me about it.”

Roscoe said the fair board decided economic conditions also warranted a break on the price of admission, which was $8 last year on weekend nights but is $7 all nights of the fair this year. Admission price for senior citizens (age 62 and up) is $3. Mechanical rides are included in the price of admission.

The fair board has changed a few things over the years regarding its parking to help with mud problems: It has improved parking-lot drainage and put down recycled asphalt in some areas and new asphalt in others.

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

The fair board no longer provides tractors to pull out vehicles, but it does have Anderson tour buses that will be brought in if the weather turns bad, Roscoe said.

In that event, buses will transport fairgoers to and from Kent State University Trumbull Campus in Champion, where the parking lots are asphalt.

The 2009 fair — the 163rd — also returns to a more simple approach to entertainment.

After a one-year experiment with bringing in a big-name entertainer — country singer Tracy Lawrence performed last year at a cost above $35,000 — the fair board returns to local entertainment this year, with no performer costing more than $400.

The Tracy Lawrence experiment was a failure, Roscoe said. It was made possible by a one-time payment engineered in 2005 by Jason Earnhart, a former assistant county prosecutor, using money left over when the Trumbull County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau was dissolved.

The show didn’t fill the grandstands, didn’t produce carryover revenue to use this year and produced hard feelings when Roscoe got roped into providing the Lawrence entourage of 30 people with three meals a day for several days, plus large quantities of other luxuries.

“They just thought they [the band and entourage] were above the fair board. It was their way or no way,” said Roscoe, of Gustavus Township.

In addition to the traditional performances by groups such as the Rock and Country Cloggers and the Shake Down band, the fair sticks to its bread-and-butter motor sports events throughout the week this year.

But in addition to the Late-Crate, E-Mod, BRP Modifieds and Pure Stock car races Thursday and Friday and the tractor- and truck-pulls and demolition derby Friday, Saturday and Sunday, there will be a new event Tuesday.

Paired with the school-bus races Tuesday will be a race among compact cars, said Bud Rodgers, vice president of the fair board.

The race features cars such as Dodge Neons, Chevrolet Cavaliers and Honda Accords — four-cylinder cars that can be equipped to race for a couple thousand dollars, Rodgers said.

These cars go slower than their big-brother counterparts later in the week, but the racing can be just as fun, Rodgers said.

“Sometimes the little guys put on a better show than the big guys. They run at about the same speed, so they run together,” he added.

Rodgers said races among the less-expensive compact cars have become increasingly popular in the area since last fall, when the national and local economies took a tumble.

Fireworks will be featured about 9:45 p.m. next Sunday to close the fair.

runyan@vindy.com