Lincoln County Fair canceled

DAVENPORT — The Lincoln County Fair and Rodeo will not take place this year, officials announced citing concerns relating COVID-19.

The fair was planned for Aug. 20-22.

“It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that the Lincoln County Fair Advisory Board and the Lincoln County Commissioners have made a difficult decision to cancel the 2020 Lincoln County Fair & Rodeo,” an announcement on the fair’s website says. “This decision was not taken lightly, and many facts were gathered to make this final decision.”

County Commissioner Scott Hutsell said the decision to cancel was a hard one to make.

“I have been a commissioner for 12 years now and it’s probably the toughest decision,” Hutsell said. “I have probably lost more sleep over this than anything.”

Hutsell said the decision was a cautious one, but one he feels was made in the best interest of the county.

“Between contracting for bands, judges, all of the things that go into putting on a fair, these are things you’re doing months ahead of time,” Hutsell said. “There are things you can’t wait on.”

Hutsell said the expenses, plus several others, made it important to make a decision early. He said if they went forward with planning the fair, they may have to cancel it later, which would cost the county money.

“I joke that whatever decision we make on this fair will end up being the wrong one,” Hutsell said.

Gov. Jay Inslee announced a four-phase plan to open the state economy.

Although Lincoln County has been allowed to move to Phase 2 while most of the rest of the state is still in Phase 1, the governor has given no indication he will allow counties to enter other phases early as well.

Phase 2 still prohibits gatherings of more than five people. While Phase 3 allows for gatherings up to 50 people, that would still not be enough for the fair to take place.

Larger gatherings, with social distancing guidelines in place, are allowed in Phase 4.

There is currently no word on what the guidelines would look like.

“We wanted to be thoughtful enough to be able to let people know early enough,” Hutsell said.

“We won’t know until the end of August whether we would have been able to have it anyway.”