This is the annual meeting of the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners and the Lancaster County Ag Society to discuss the management of county funds and care for county property. A long running partnership between two separate county-level publicly-elected entities created under Nebraska state law.
Nineteen years ago, the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners first approved the bonds to start building the Lancaster Event Center (LEC) to open in 2001.
They challenged the Ag Society to keep the fairgrounds open year-round for other events which was not the practice back in the day. It wasn’t easy for the Ag Society to beat the chicken and egg question of how to fund year-round staff to do this starting from zero events.
Now at 322 events, nearly ½ million visitors annually creating $39.5M economic impact it seems the County Board was on to something! Other fairground experts have said that LEC Fairgrounds is actually now considered to be on leading edge of what fairgrounds can do for their local communities—the annual county fair is just the beginning!
Minutes (including meeting presentations: Super Fair Report from Jamie Bauman, LEC Report from Amy Dickerson & Impact Study preview from Dr. Eric Thompson)
