Two girls compete in the Ag Olympics at last summer’s Faribault County Fair.

Thanks to an influx of extra cash from sponsorships and the Faribault County Agricultural Society (Ag Society), last year’s Faribault County Fair showed a small net profit.

At last Monday night’s annual meeting of the Ag Society, and a meeting of the Faribault County Fair Board, the members received a financial update.

It showed the overall revenue from all aspects of the fair was $161,809. That income included $30,100 in sponsorships and $45,300 in a transfer of funds from the Ag Society.

The cost of sales was $97,927, plus the other expenses were $59,782.

That left a net income of $4,099 for the fair held this past July.

The Ag Society’s main source of income comes from two farms they own which are rented out.

The Ag Society also selects the members of the Fair Board, which they did during their annual meeting last Monday.

Two new members elected to the Fair Board on Monday were Cathi Douglas of Delavan, and Franz Scholtz of Elmore.

The terms of current board members Marlin Prange, Marlin Krupp, Daryl Murray and Justin Dahl were all up.

Prange, Krupp and Murray were all re-elected to the board, and Justin Dahl had resigned from the board at the end of his term.

The Fair Board then held an election of officers. On one motion and vote, all the current officers were re-elected to their positions. Those officers are Prange as president, Rob Tvedten and Joe Stevermer as co-vice presidents, David Murray as treasurer and Robin Stenzel as secretary.

During the Fair Board’s meeting, the board had a long discussion with demolition derby promoter Brandon Thomas. He wanted to know if the board was still interested in having the demo derby at the fair.

The board said they were thinking of having something else instead, mainly due to low numbers of derby cars entered.

“The demolition derby actually costs us money, despite the fact that it is well attended,” board president Prange said.

They asked Thomas if he had any ideas why other fairs have quite a few demo cars entered, and they do not.

He did not have any real answers for them he said, but he gave examples of demo derbys with 40 to 60 cars entered, while Faribault County barely has 20.

After the meeting, Stenzel said the board has been looking at something called Auto Cross to replace the derby. It is like a cross between a demo derby and a car race, she said.

Another issue which was discussed dealt with liability insurance. Board members were mainly concerned with what happens when other groups use fairgrounds facilities and an accident happens.

“We do have liability insurance for when the fair is on,” Prange said. “And we finally did get the go-karts to get liability insurance.”

Board member Joe Stevermer was concerned with what happens if someone gets hurt during horse shows that are run by horse clubs.

“Now that we own a million dollars of farmland, we need to protect it,” he said. “What about the case of if someone falls off a horse and is badly hurt and sues us, even though it is not our show?”

The board discussed various options and will continue to get answers as far as liability insurance is concerned.

Former Fair Board member Milt Steele was present and raised several concerns and asked a few questions.

Several of those had to do with finances, check signing and financial reports.

Board members and the treasurer attempted to answer Steele’s questions, but he had copies of two checks that had been signed by an unauthorized signator.

One board member said those were old checks and that it (signing checks) is not done that way anymore. Another board member questioned how Steele was able to get copies of the checks.

Steele did not say how, but Prange said he had given Steele access to the checks.

The board felt it had answered Steele’s questions and moved on. Steele said after the meeting that he did not feel they had adequately addressed his concerns.