By Rebecca Dopp
Times-News Correspondent
User fees for the fairground arenas are not entirely
fair, or so say some local riding clubs. Representatives
from these clubs voiced their opinions to the Juab County
Commissioners, who set these fees back in June of 2003.
There was also a concern over scheduling.
Glen Fowkes, an advisor for the JHS Rodeo Club, said that
he was concerned about the fees. He wanted to know where the
Rodeo Club and the 4-H clubs stood. Commissioner Boyd
Howarth said that the commission would waive fees for these
two clubs, but that they couldn't schedule a block of days
and then not use them. He wanted to know what days and times
each club would need.
Brook Taylor and Wayne Jarrett, representatives of the
Nephi Nebo Riding Posse, were concerned about scheduling
conflicts. Taylor said that they were expecting to have the
District meet at the fairgrounds the first weekend in August
2004, but was told by Bob Day that those dates were already
scheduled. Taylor said that five riding clubs would be
attending the meet.
Taylor said that they couldn't get any practice time
either because of conflicts with the Handcart Pageant, and
Good Sam's Club. Also the Demolition Derby falls on that
first weekend of August.
Some suggestions were made to help accommodate the time
for the District meet. Commissioner Howarth asked if the
derby could be moved to after the fair. Commissioner Neil
Cook suggested squeezing the set-up time for the pageant
into a shorter time span to help with their practicing
time.
Taylor was also concerned over fees. He said that the
mayor of Hinckley told him that the arena there would be
available for free, but Taylor didn't want to go out of the
county.
Cook said that the users fees were set up to help cover
the cost of the fairgrounds.
Kathy Webb, an interested individual user of the arena,
asked about fees and wanted to straighten up the rights of
paying and non-paying users. She wanted to know about who
had the right to use the arena and when, and voiced her
concern of people not using it when they had it
scheduled.
Cook stated that if the county had the revenues to pay a
full-time manager to police the usage of the arena, then
that would take care of a lot of the problems, but that the
money just wasn't available at the present time.
The commissioners know of the problems and are willing to
work with everyone who has concerns. They agree that this is
a starting point to help make the usage of the fairgrounds a
fair deal for users and county alike.
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