Screenshot of Thursday’s emergency Board of Supervisors meeting.


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The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $1 million funding request this Thursday afternoon to pay for emergency repairs to the grandstands at the Ferndale Fairgrounds that were damaged during the Dec. 20 earthquake.

If the grandstands aren’t repaired soon, the Humboldt County Fair Association will have to cancel the popular horse races.

A few months after the earthquake occurred, the county hired a structural engineering firm to perform an in-depth inspection of the grandstands. The county recently received the initial draft assessment determined that the building “currently appears adequate to support vertical loads, but not lateral (seismic) loads of the type that need to be taken into account for occupant safety,” according to the staff report.

“In a major earthquake, the roof of that facility could fall,” Public Works Director Tom Mattson told the board. “The grandstands will not collapse, but the roof could come off and there’s a fall zone around the entire grandstand of about 66 feet that needs to be protected.”

With opening day less than two months away, staff asked the engineering firm to come up with some options that would allow the county to repair the grandstands in time for the fair. The problem: There are other deferred maintenance and other earthquake-related repairs that the county needs to address.

Mattson | Screenshot

“This project does not do anything for the deferred maintenance or the earthquake repairs,” Mattson said. “We’re just stabilizing the existing facility and not making any real improvements or repairs to the damage that the facility has, but it would make [the grandstands] usable. … We’ve met with a number of contractors on site … [and] we did get a note from one contractor this morning that they could do it if they got the ability to work six days a week and got noticed to move ahead very quickly.”

The temporary fix would cost the county upwards of $1 million. There’s a possibility that a chunk of those funds could be reimbursed through the state Office of Emergency Services (OES), but “that is not a guarantee,” Mattson said. “It does qualify for some OES funding because it was damaged in the earthquake and that is 75% reimbursable but they will not pay for deferred maintenance. … I’m pretty confident we can get some reimbursement but I can’t guarantee that.”

The other option is “a controlled failure” in which staff would essentially control where the roof would fall. “If we can do that and protect the racetrack then the races could still occur, but the grandstands could not be occupied,” Mattson said.

First District Supervisor Rex Bohn asked if there was a possibility that the temporary fix could be able to tie into a permanent fix down the line. “Or are you talking about a teardown [and] a complete rebuild for a permanent fix?”

“We are not talking about a teardown,” Mattson said. “We haven’t even gone there at this point. Our whole focus was looking at how could we get this facility back open for the fair.”

Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell asked what temporary stabilization of the grandstands would entail and if it would involve taking the roof off the facility. Mattson said the contractors would provide metal supports at 25-foot intervals on all sides of the facility to provide extra reinforcement

Bushnell noted that the county isn’t exactly “flush with any kind of money” and asked where the funding would come from and whether the board could afford to allocate any additional funds from the Local Assistance and Tribal Contingency Fund.

“We have $1 million that’s available in the remainder of our 2020 finance plan that could be accessed immediately and I would certainly advocate for that to be the first route for funding,” said County Administrative Officer Elishia Hayes. “We have $2 million in Local Assistance and Tribal Contingency Funds that your board has decided not to allocate to wait to see how the next fix fiscal year shakes out.”

Hayes added that the county would have to continue working with the Humboldt County Fair Association to better understand the total cost of the project and if they would be eligible for reimbursement.

Speaking during public comment, Andy Titus, board president of the Fair Association, emphasized the countywide economic impact of the Humboldt County Fair and urged the board to allocate the funds for a temporary fix.

Titus | Screenshot

“If we cannot use the grandstands and we can’t have horse racing, that eliminates the majority of that revenue that comes from out of the area into [our community],” Titus said. “That helps the small businesses continue, that helps the grocery stores, that helps the gas stations, that helps the taxes that you guys get from. Obviously, it helps us as well. I just think that this has to be a group effort and we have to work together to figure out how to make this happen.”

Michael Gunner, a resident living in the Humboldt County Fairgrounds RV Park, criticized the Fair Association and the county for failing to adhere to ADA compliance standards in the RV park and the restrooms.

“The stadium three years ago got an elevator that’s still sitting on the ground,” he said. “Depending on how the [Fair Association’s board] meeting goes tonight and what they do, my attorneys will probably file for an injunction to shut the fairgrounds down. … You’ve got some major problems and people who are disabled are being discriminated against, so you need to take that into consideration. … I’ve never done this before but I need to stand up and speak at this point.”

Area resident Cindy Olsen described several improvements the Fair Association had made during her 24 years on the board, including ADA improvements to facilities. “We just had a lift installed in our grandstand to accommodate the disabled,” she said. “The cost for this was over $75,000 [and] that amount was covered by a trust. … The fair has constructed a super box just past the finish line to accommodate the higher-end sponsors and the handicapped.”

Following public comment, Bushnell made a motion to approve the $1 million funding request from the county’s 2020 finance plan and directed staff to return to the board should the funding request exceed that amount. She also requested that Bohn join Hayes and Mattson in working with the Fair Association throughout the repair process. Bohn seconded the motion.

Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo and Fifth District Supervisor and Board Chair Steve Madrone were a little more hesitant to move ahead with the funding request given the nature of the county’s finances. 

“I just have a lot of apprehension about spending more than what we can finance given the state of our county budget,” Arroyo said. “I’m on board with addressing those immediate concerns but what it looks like longer term I think we do have to grapple with. This is not an easy time to consider expenditures above and beyond what we can include in the finance plan.”

Arroyo added that she and her partner had their first date at the Humboldt County Fair and, while it holds a “special place in [her] heart,” she felt compelled to note the concerns of her constituents surrounding horseracing. 

“I gotta say, I’m more interested in maintaining our infrastructure and helping to support all the other things that the fair is and does for people, like the kids that show their sheep,” she said. “I don’t really want to kind of center this around the support of horse racing or the community pros or cons with respect to that. … But that said, I know that it’s a big revenue generator and the Fair has a lot of other aspects that mean a lot to a lot of people. So, I get it.”

Similarly, Madrone expressed his love for the fair but noted that the county is in “a world of hurt with our budget.” He asked if Fair Association staff had an estimate of how much revenue the fair – specifically horseracing – brings in annually. 

“It’s hard to give you an accurate number but I can tell you admissions would be way down,” Titus responded. “I mean, if you go there on Ladies Hat Day or the other Saturday there are 5,000 people there. Would they come without the horse racing? I don’t know. Some may, most probably wouldn’t. The truthful answer is we don’t know.”

“But it’s not a million dollars?” Madrone asked.

“For one year? No. It’s not a million dollars,” Titus said. “But I can guarantee you if you don’t invest this million this year that county is going to lose three to four million dollars that the fair brings in that support the local businesses. I can give you that number pretty confidently.”

Madrone also asked about the status of ADA improvements at the fairgrounds. Assistant CAO Karen Clower said the county completed “quite a bit of work” and “met the terms of the consent decree at the time” between 2016 and 2020.

“There is a large amount of work that still needs to be completed at the fairgrounds,” she said. “It is included in our compliance plan that your board adopted in 2020. We do have a timeline laid out for that and we are looking forward to working with the Fair Association on completing the barriers that remain.”

Bohn noted that he would rather see the money spent on other infrastructure improvements on Mattole Road but emphasized that there is no way around it. “This building is ours,” he said. “We have to fix it.”

After a bit of additional discussion on the merits of horseracing and potential opportunities for reimbursement, the board approved the funding request in a unanimous 4-0 vote, with Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson absent.

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The Humboldt County Fair Association board will hold a meeting to discuss the matter this evening (Thursday) at 5 p.m.