LITTLE ROCK — When the Arkansas Livestock Show Association board meets today at 2 p.m., it will again ponder the question: “Should the State Fair move from Little Rock or stay?”
Fair goers and vendors have some thoughts.
On a crisp Wednesday morning and afternoon, people readily shared their opinions on the possibility of the fair moving across the river to North Little Rock or Jacksonville, the two cities vying to land the annual event, uprooting it from its home of 65 years on Roosevelt Road.
Most interviewed at the fair said they’d like to see a bigger venue with safer parking and more of it. However, a few said that to move the fair would be to strip it of some of its nostalgia and could even result in a dip in attendance.
Whatever the case, a decision is still a long way off, said Ralph Shoptaw, general manager of the State Fair.
“Our position is that we’re going to wait and see how the sales tax election goes in North Little Rock on Nov.8,” Shoptaw said. “At some point in time, the board will meet and discuss what steps to take moving forward if it passes.”
North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Hays is asking voters for two sales taxes: a half percent to expire March 31, 2017, to be used for capital improvements; and a permanent half-percent to be divided evenly between capital improvements and general operations.
Among the proposed expenditures, Hays said, would be the purchase of 2,000 acres just east of the city for a “jobs and business park” that could include a relocated State Fairgrounds.
Jacksonville has offered to give the fair about 445 acres.
In Little Rock, a sales tax increase that passed Sept. 13 included $3 million for keeping the fairgrounds where it is.
The association requested proposals in November 2009 to either relocate the State Fair or improve the existing, 148-acre fairgrounds in central Little Rock.
In June, association members commissioned Rod Markin of Rod Markin Consulting in Maple Grove, Minn., to study what they call “The Box” - thousands of undeveloped acres in the eastern reaches of central Arkansas - as a new location for the fair.
The Jacksonville site and the North Little Rock site are in The Box, which is identified as the general area “situated north of Interstate 40 and east of Interstate 440 ... accessed via one of two existing exits along Interstate 40 - Exit 161 at I-40 and [Arkansas] Highway 391 and then via E. Valentine Road or Exit 165 at I-40 and Kerr Road and then via Wayne Lane.”
Most fair patrons interviewed Wednesday said they want to see the fair have more space.
“I think it needs to move,” said Grace Hall, who was enjoying a corn dog with her husband, Freddie Hall, on Wednesday morning. “The parking is terrible, the buildings are old. I think they need room to expand.”
The Halls said they’d been attending the fair at least 30 years.
“Years ago, it was all right,” Freddie Hall said. “It’s time for some changes.”
“And compared with what’s going on in the downtowns, in Little Rock and North Little Rock, this is a disgrace really,” Grace Hall said.
Johnny Marshall, a livestock exhibitor said he thinks the facility itself is fine but could be freshened up. The location on the other hand could be better.
“I think a move would be good. This site is kind of hard to get to. It’s hard getting in and out on the city streets with your trailers,” he said. “A little farther drive wouldn’t matter. That’s the way most of the folks I know feel about it.”
Michael Hickerson, who moved to central Arkansas from Tampa, Fla., said he’s been going to the fair every year for the past seven years and wouldn’t skip it. But he said more space for more attractions might draw more people.
“In Florida, there was a circus tent, a big top every year,” he said.
Miranda Dobson and De-Shawn Allen said they took a break from visiting the fair for a while because of safety concerns.
“The last time I was here, I was caught in the middle of a gunfight,” Dobson said. “A face-lift would be nice, but they definitely need more parking, safer parking.”
In 2009, three people suffered gunshot wounds after shots rang out just before 11 p.m. as 40 or 50 people walked to their cars in the residential neighborhood north of the fairgrounds.
“I don’t come at night, that’s for sure,” Allen said. “By 6 o’clock, we’ll already be headed home.”
Such problems aside, a few people said the fair should stay where it is.
“I think it’s fine right here off Roosevelt Road,” said Theresa Harris, who was having lunch with a group of friends. “It could use a spruce-up, but I think it’s wonderful.”
Lisa Marr who was enjoying lunch with her mother, Doloris Johnson, said she was appalled at the thought of the fair moving. Johnson said she’s been attending the fair with her daughter since at least 1970.
“I think it’s a good location, and to move would take away from the nostalgia,” Marr said. “I’ve lived here all my life, and it’s been here forever. I admit that not much has changed as far as I can tell, so it needs an update, but this is where it should stay.”
Several vendors also said they’d like to see the fairgrounds move. Kevin Carter, selling leather goods and purses from a booth near the front entrance, pointed to safety and parking as his primary concerns.
“You have to park blocks away sometimes and at night. The patrons and vendors are scared to walk to their vehicles,” he said. “If you’re here late enough, you can hear gunshots fired.”
A man selling turkey legs farther down the midway who would only give his name as Eric W. said his concern about a move would be losing attendance.
“The Virginia State Fair moved out of Richmond, and they suffered,” he said. “Sometimes when you move, you kill a good thing.”
Representatives for the Virginia State Fair didn’t immediately return a telephone message seeking commen ton Wednesday.
However, Shoptaw, the Arkansas State Fair manager, said he’s met with such Virginians and talked with the Nebraska State Fair, which also moved in the past three years.
He said that in Virginia the fair moved from that state’s capital city, Richmond, to Fredericksburg about 60 miles to the north. The Nebraska fair moved from that state’s capital, Lincoln, about 100 miles west to Grand Island.
“I think their attendance declined some but is okay,” Shoptaw said. “Our feasibility study shows that our attendance would increase by as much as 30 percent. When you think about it, it’s just 10 miles or so from downtown Little Rock. People are more mobile than they used to be. I don’t think being eight or 10 miles away is going to affect us. In fact, it could draw from as far as West Memphis and Memphis.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/20/2011