Canfield Fairgoers assured that concerts will be safe

By Elise Franco

efranco@vindy.com

Canfield

Structures erected inside the grandstand during the Canfield Fair are as safe and secure as a temporary structure can be, said the president of the fair’s promotions company.

R.J. Kaltenbach, president of Klein’s Attractions Inc. in Chicago, said a temporary roof and stage are set up inside the grandstand Saturday evening to accommodate the Sunday and Monday concerts.

In light of the Aug. 13 stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair that killed five people and injured dozens more, Kaltenbach said it’s understandable that people would want to know what types of inspections and procedures crews do to ensure the equipment is fair-ready.

“We follow every guideline the manufacturer recommends, and these people continuously monitor new safety regulations,” he said. “We’re on top of it. Nobody puts one of these [structures] up in the air without having a plan.”

Kaltenbach said the stage roof is constructed by MDS Lighting based in Georgia, a company the Canfield Fair has used and trusted for the past 15 years.

George Roman, Canfield Fair board member in charge of concessions and entertainment, said each piece is individually inspected before being sent to the fairgrounds.

“They’re certified before they come out for the season,” he said. “They have to have that done and inspected before they can even come out on the road to set the stages up.”

Roman said stage setup begins Saturday night and is usually finished Sunday afternoon, and at any given time, between 10 and 40 people are working on getting it concert-ready.

Kaltenbach said each phase of the setup includes multiple equipment checks.

“There’s a continuous flow of people who go behind each other and monitor and check and make sure that bolts are tight and things are secure,” he said. “It’s sort of a redundancy thing.”

The whole process, before sound and lighting installation, can take about nine hours, he said.

Roman and Kaltenbach both said though the fair’s concert stage is secure, it’s impossible to rule out a disaster such as the one in Indiana.

“Once the roof is in place, we’re constantly monitoring the weather,” he said. “They’re as safe as they can be, but it is still a temporary structure. ... In the face of 70-mph winds, it’s hard to know exactly what’s going to happen.”

Don Hutchison, Cardinal Joint Fire District chief, said former Chief Robert Tieche implemented an emergency operations plan for the fair many years ago.

“We have a four-step plan that is dependent upon the severity of the emergency,” Hutchison said.

The plan includes day-to-day medical issues as well as major happenings that would require outside resources.

“If it’s something major, we start contacting and set up a unified command with all the police, fire and emergency management departments,” he said.

Any Mahoning County safety enforcement entity involved in this plan is required to train the commanding officer by sending him or her to a course by the National Incident Management System, Hutchison said.

“By law they have to take that class,” he said. “It’s so that everybody knows what job they’d have to do.”

Hutchison said that if a major disaster were to happen, safety officials would be prepared.

“You always want to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best, and that’s what we always do here in Canfield,” he said.