By Meredith Gardner
meredith.gardner@theindependent.com

With a signature from the governor virtually guaranteed, that means the fair has been given the go-ahead to leave its more-than-100-year-old home at State Fair Park in Lincoln for Fonner Park in Grand Island by 2010.

The move also makes way for the construction of a University of Nebraska research and innovation park on the existing fair grounds, which are located adjacent to the university's Lincoln campus.

Gov. Dave Heineman is tentatively scheduled to come to Grand Island late Friday morning to sign the bill into law, said Don Dunn, chairman of the Grand Island Area Chamber of Commerce board.

Cindy Johnson, chamber president, called the results of the final vote a "community-changing action by the Legislature, life-changing for the State Fair, life-changing for the community of Grand Island."

"We're very excited," Johnson said. "This was the last step in the first process, the first of many processes."

How did we get here?

The process of bringing the State Fair to Grand Island formally began in October, when the Legislature's Agriculture Committee asked Nebraska communities to voice their interest in hosting the fair.

But the groundwork for Wednesday's decision was laid decades before then.

"This has been a very complex set of circumstances because there has been so many moving parts," said Mayor Margaret Hornady, who also expressed her excitement about Wednesday's vote.

All of those involved agree that it was having the right infrastructure and leadership in place at the right time that gave Grand Island a good shot at becoming the new home for the fair.

Without Fonner Park and the Heartland Events Center, the city wouldn't have had the needed existing facilities to make a move affordable.

"Going back to our forefathers, they certainly enabled what happened today to happen," said Hugh Miner Jr., executive vice president and chief executive officer of Fonner Park.

Fonner Park was organized in 1953 after a group of farmers, ranchers and other prominent community members decided to establish a permanent space for the Hall County Fair. The next year, the grounds were open for use.

"Who would've thought that 55 years later, not only would they become the host site of the Hall County Fair, but the State Fair?" Miner said.

In 2006, Fonner Park got a boost when the Heartland Events Center opened, a milestone Miner at the time said would put Grand Island on the map for conventions and concerts. And the addition of a new fire station on east Fonner Park Road, Island Oasis nearby and the softball and soccer fields along east Stolley Park Road gave the Fonner Park grounds even more appeal.

The completion of the South Locust Street widening project in 2002 and the opening of the Interstate 80 interchange at South Locust in 2004 also played a role in preparing Grand Island to handle an event of the magnitude of the State Fair, Johnson said. Husker Harvest Days, which began in Grand Island 30 years ago, served as proof Grand Island could successfully host large agricultural events.

Grand Island leaders had experience offering the city's assets to the fair board before, when in 2003 former Mayor Jay Vavricek wrote a letter to the board outlining the city's assets. At the time, the fair was in debt and losing money. In 2004, Nebraskans voted in favor of an amendment that provided financial support for the fair through lottery funds.

But in 2007, the Legislature's ag committee began exploring models of the "ideal" State Fair as the University of Nebraska expressed interest in using State Fair Park for a public/private research campus.

As the committee sought proposals from communities outside Lincoln, Grand Island leaders once again offered the city's facilities for the use of the fair, this time in the form of a lengthy report.

Representatives from the chamber, Grand Island Area Economic Development Corp., Fonner Park, HEC, city government, former mayors and state senators came together to voice their support for the proposal.

"If we wanted good things to happen, we needed to make them happen for our community," Johnson said.

Eventually, the undertaking "morphed into something different," Johnson said, as Grand Island representatives were invited into the process of creating a new vision for the fair's future, Johnson said.

Within the last couple of months, the ag committee decided the "highest and best use" for State Fair Park was as a research campus, and all parties involved the fair board, Grand Island community members and the university were able to agree on a plan to move to Fonner Park.

Some local leaders were optimistic about Grand Island's chances of securing the fair throughout the process, but others said they didn't expect Grand Island to make it as far as Wednesday's vote.

"I was somewhat skeptical," said Marlan Ferguson, president of the EDC. "But I think my thought (was), 'Let's make a little noise and at least see what happens' ... We never gave up hope."

What's next?

Now that the vote is behind them, Grand Island leaders said it's time to roll up their sleeves and start preparing for the fair.

"There's so much work to do now for the next phase that the celebration period is going to be pretty short," Johnson said.

As part of LB1116, Grand Island is responsible for providing $8.5 million for the $42 million move, while the University of Nebraska will pay $21.5 million, the state will provide $5 million from its cash reserve and the State Fair board will come up with $7 million.

Before the fair's move can take place, Grand Island must meet fundraising deadlines specified in the bill, with $3 million committed by Oct. 1, $6 million committed by Feb. 1, 2009, and all $8.5 million committed by July 1, 2009.

In addition to raising the money, the community must also begin work on drawing up formal contract agreements between the fair board and the Hall County Livestock Improvement Association, which does business as Fonner Park. There are engineers to hire, buildings to construct and State Fair programming to plan.

To make it all fall into place, Vavricek said community leaders must reach out to the people of Grand Island and Central Nebraska and help them understand the rewards of hosting the State Fair in Grand Island.

"Our efforts have been successful thus far because we believed we could be successful," Dunn said. "And I think there are many people in the community that share that belief, and that's really important. We risked failing so that we could be successful.

"We took a big step today. We've got a long ways to go and a lot left to do."