Permanent Site for Farm Technology Days in Clark County Being Discussed
Monday, June 25th, 2018 -- 10:21 AM
-The future of Farm Technology Days has brought up a couple old conversations: Should the show have a permanent site? And should that site be Clark County?On Thursday of last week, members of the Clark County Board of Supervisors’ Economic Development Committee, the Clark County Economic Development Corporation and Tourism Bureau, the 2018 Wisconsin Farm Technology Days Committee and others met in Loyal to discuss if Clark County should be considered as a permanent location for Farm Technology Days. Currently, the show does travel from county to county each year. It has a host county for this year, 2019 and 2020. However, the county that planned on hosting the event in 2021, Calumet County, has backed out. This is what sparked this conversation to be had, as the Wisconsin Farm Technology Days Board is having a hard time finding counties to host the event. The board looked at sites that could host including Iola, which hosts their large Iola Car Show each year, and others. However, there were some that thought, if Farm Tech Days is going to have a permanent location, it should be Clark County, the number one ag county in the state and a county almost right in the middle of the state.
The county had this very conversation back in 2009. At the time, the board was, again, having a hard time finding counties willing to host the event. So, discussion began on having a permanent location in Clark County. A committee was formed, land near Owen was even purchased, water and sewer was run to the land and a pitch was made to the Farm Tech Days Board on why Clark County should be the county to host it permanently. However, once counties heard that the show would possibly be in a permanent location, the board received an influx of counties willing to host again, so the discussion of a permanent location was tabled.
Now, with the difficulty of finding a host county again, the discussion has been reignited. Hosting Farm Tech Days isn’t a cheap or easy endeavor. The county would need to ask if the show is viable. Can it last in one place long term? The county would need 200 acres for field demos, 70 acres for tent city and 80 acres for parking. They would also need to find anywhere from 1,500-3,000 volunteers to run the event and Farm Tech Days employees would need to be considered to run the event year after year in the same place. Another challenge would be keeping the show fresh every year. And that’s not to mention the hefty price tag: Wood County has a budget of $1.5 million for this year’s show. Many times, the shows are lucky to break even and if the county would fail to make money or break even, they would be on the hook for the bill.
In the end, the County Board’s Economic Development Committee decided to form a committee to explore the option of Clark County being the permanent site for Farm Technology Days if the Farm Tech Board would decide to go that route. If the committee decides to try for it, they will make a pitch to the Farm Tech Board on October 3rd. Nothing is set in stone at this point and the committee is merely exploring the option.
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