Rochester Fair board member chides city over its treatment of struggling fair

Storm Clouds over the Fair? The Rochester Fair's Exhibition Hall could be condemned for fair use if fire officials deem it unsafe. (Rochester Voice photos)

ROCHESTER - With its doors set to open three weeks from today, a Rochester Fair board member is rapping city officials for throwing monkey wrenches in the struggling fair's reboot.

City Councilor and Rochester Fair board member Sandra Keans said the city's recent demands for prepayment of police and fire details and the fire department's late demands for a sprinkler system in the fair's Exhibition Hall are just two examples of what she calls a "vindictive" attitude at City Hall.

Keans said about 10 weeks ago city fire officials said they would need a sprinkler system installed in the exhibition hall, a system one technician said would take two months to design, let alone install.

The building that would be used for an exhibition hall if the fair's regular one is disallowed.

"The fair's been going for 140 years. They never asked for one before, and not in 2016," Keans said. "We offered to put in more heat detectors; they said no, we need a sprinkler system."

It's still unclear whether the city will allow a waiver to use the exhibition hall without the sprinkler system. No notice has been sent.

If they don't, the much smaller metal building opposite the exhibition hall will have to be substituted, Keans said on Wednesday.

The walls of the sprawling Exhibition Hall are historically lined with artwork and other handcrafted items to be judged, so it would be hard to imagine the smaller building being able to fill its shoes.

Rochester Fair board member Robert Brown; and president, Nancy Gilbert, both implored the city to allow the use of the hall during a Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday.

"Not being able to use the Exhibition Hall would be a huge hardship," Gilbert said.

The sprawling Exhibition Hall is likely three or four times the size of the metal building they may be forced to substitute, Keans said.

Calls made on Wednesday to the Rochester Fire Department, including Chief Mark Klose, were not returned.

The other slap in the face to the fair, Keans said, is the city's insistence on being paid in advance some $25,000 for fire and police details during its eight-day run next month.

Keans said it's true they just recently paid for the 2016 details a few weeks ago due to the fair's fiscal crisis that surfaced last year.

However, she reasoned the fair has never been asked to prepay for the details in the past, and considering all the transition the fair's board has undergone and the obstacles they have overcome already, it's a slap in the face to be saddled with a huge bill this way just weeks before the gates open.

Keans is hoping the City Council will reconsider forcing the fair to prepay the details and that the fire department will allow the Exhibition Hall to be used.

Resident Sandy Averill was one of several who argued during public comment on Tuesday that the Exhibition Hall should be allowed to open.

"For 142 years it was OK," she quipped.