A key component of a legal agreement between the Hopkinton State Fair board of directors and the town will go unfulfilled this year.
The Fair’s board of directors recently said they have been unable to find two Hopkinton residents to appoint to the board, despite the town forwarding a list of interested individuals last August. The effort to add locals is required under a settlement agreement the Fair reached with the town in 2015 that allows the Fair to pay 75 percent of the local and municipal taxes due for the fairgrounds through 2023.
But the Fair said it’s not their fault that part of the agreement has gone unfulfilled: The town has sent them one list in the last two years, and none of the five individuals on the list ever responded to emails or physical mail sent to their addresses sent earlier this year, according to Fair board president Deborah Curtis.
And while Curtis said she knows the town has a cultural connection to the fair, she also said it was hard to see why the town was so insistent on the need for locals on the board, especially when those who were contacted never responded.
“I feel like the question is, ‘What is it about having someone local on the board that you feel like you’re not getting from us?’ ” Curtis said. “I feel like the board hasn’t answered that yet.”
The settlement stemmed from a disagreement between the town and the Fair about how much the Fair should pay in taxes as a nonprofit charitable organization in 2014. The Fair had entered into a Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreement in 1995 that allowed them to pay a lesser amount in property taxes than what the fairgrounds were worth. In 2013, that meant the Fair was paying $31,000 of the grounds’ total taxable amount of $46,000, according to select board minutes from July 15, 2013. It’s unclear how that amount was decided.
On Oct. 21, 2013, the board voted not to renew that PILOT. But according to select board Chairman Jim O’Brien, the issue of local involvement with the Fair was stewing long before that meeting.
“Whether it was right or wrong, some people in town felt that the focus of the fair had changed,” he said. “The fair used to have a strong connection with the town, and over the years people felt the communication with local institutions had broken down.”
O’Brien said that sentiment stemmed from the Fair outsourcing several components of the event typically handled by locals. In one example, he said the Hopkinton Rescue Squad used to run the fair’s demolition derby, but then the Fair found a third-party company to run the event due to concerns about liability and professionalism. Curtis said a local cleaning service could no longer be used due to quality of service and price, according to the Oct. 21, 2013, minutes.
But O’Brien said those decisions made townspeople feel like the Fair was losing its connection to Hopkinton, which has hosted the event since 1915 and is seen as a cultural institution in the town.
“There’s a social aspect, where a lot of families look forward to and enjoy the fair,” he said. “And then there’s the agricultural aspect, because people in town like to show off their animals, and then there’s the financial piece, because many organizations and school groups use the fair for fundraising opportunities.”
The town and the Fair’s relationship only soured from there, as the Fair board decided to cut the length of the fair from five days to four and moved “Town Night,” when locals get to attend the fair for free, from Wednesday to Thursday and barred food vendors from opening that evening. After the town voted twice to deny the Fair tax-exemption status, the Fair filed a complaint in Merrimack County Superior Court.
The two entities were able to reach an agreement before going to trial, according to court documents. And although the Fair is a private, independent entity – in fact, the fairgrounds are owned by the Fair, not the town – the agreement appears to give the town generous access to the Fair’s resources.
For example, Hopkinton holds its graduation every year on the fairgrounds, and sports teams are allowed to use the property for practices. Town Night is guaranteed, and vendors who are on site are allowed to operate, although the Fair reserves the right to limit access to areas of the fairgrounds to allow exhibitions to set up. The fair promises to make a good-faith effort to hire Hopkinton high school students to work the fair, and should the Fair decide to donate to a charity, they’ll make an effort to consider Hopkinton charities first.
The part of the agreement that focuses on adding Hopkinton members says the town must provide a list of at least four interested residents. The Fair must provide qualifications and expectations of its board members, and if the Fair board declines to appoint two Hopkinton residents to the board, they have to provide the reasons why in writing.
But if locals want to get on the board, they’ll have to be prepared for a year-round commitment, Curtis said. The board meets as a whole once a month, but members, who are unpaid, often attend committee meetings, or must devote time to scheduling entertainment and vendors, according to Curtis.
And while the fair is still rooted in its agricultural and educational legacy, increasing regulations and restrictions means the Fair has to be run like a business to survive, Curtis said.
“We don’t want to make it a job application, but people have to have an interest in entertainment, the educational aspect and event coordination,” she said. “People have to understand the commitment that takes, they have to have the hours.”
Curtis said the board would be looking for interested individuals to submit a resume as well as a written paragraph on why they want to be on the board and what they feel they could bring to the table. She said the board votes on its members once a year in November, and that any interested residents should call the fairgrounds at 746-4191.
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @ActualCAndrews.)