County Fairs Looking for Changes in Wake of State Fair Disaster
by Ray Steele (rsteele@wibc.com)
from: wbc.com
4/14/2012
As last year's Indiana State Fair stage tragedy plays out amid court hearings and investigative reports, county fairs in Indiana are studying their own fairs to see if any changes need to be made.
Many, however, don't use temporary stages like the one that collapsed in a gust of wind last August at the State Fairgrounds, killing seven people.
"We don't really try to replicate what the state fair does," said Cathy Clark, president of the Marion County Fair Board. "I don't think in the future we will probably have any temporary staging or anything (like) that."
Most county fairs don't hold concerts, and in the case of Johnson County, Fair Board president Brian Young says the stage they use for limited events is a permanent, concrete structure. Young says they also have a severe weather emergency plan written down. "We have a book set up for a fair disaster, an inclement weather plan, that we have in place. We used it a few years ago when we had some serious weather come through."
One of the reports issued this week on the State Fair tragedy faulted fair officials for not having a plan to deal with inclement weather. Like Johnson County, Clark says Marion County fair officials follow specific guidelines during severe storms. "We're always looking at the weather forecast. We're always trying to find out that, if we do have to make any decisions, can we make them in a timely fashion. I think, when you have outdoor events, that's always number one is your weather."
Clark says the Marion County Fair isn't planning any major changes this year, and Young says the same about Johnson County. "Of course, we're going over it to see if there's things we need to update. But other than that, we haven't really had any problems, and we look forward to the future of making things better," said Young "You know, you can always make things better."
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