(Spencer)– Officials with the Clay County Fair are keeping close tabs on a bill that’s been introduced in the U.S. House. Clay County Fair General Manager Jeremy Parsons tells KUOO news the Agricultural Fairs Rescue Act would be part of an additional COVID-19 stimulus package…
“If it’s passed obviously it would be the first piece of kind of federal assistance we would be able to get. The Clay County Fair Association employs 13 people full time, but as a 501c5 organization we were shut out of any funding from the Paycheck Protection Program, the PPP that many small businesses in the region were able to get. So for us this Agricultural Fairs Rescue Act is key to us. Also, simply because with no fair, you know that’s 75 percent of our revenue and we use that revenue to maintain the fairgrounds and of course to prepare for the next year’s fair. So assistance we can get like this maybe through the federal government would be greatly appreciated.”
Parsons says the financial hit has been staggering…
“We’ve had 71 non-fair events cancelled which is, you know, $100,000. No fair runs that number up closer to three million.”
The bill remains in limbo in Washington, D.C as negotiations continue among lawmakers.
