Will State Fair travel well?

STATE FAIR PARK — A lemon meringue pie won the biggest blue ribbon at this year’s State Fair pie baking contest.

Champion baker Doris Chittenden of York will tell you this:

Lemon meringue pie doesn’t travel easily.

It’s too prone to weeping.

The State Fair, which heads to Grand Island after shutting down its 108th and final run today in Lincoln, will be about as easy to move as that lemon meringue pie.

From the pie bakers and quiltmakers, to the ticket takers and hot dog vendors, the Nebraska State Fair has relied heavily on people who live in or near Lincoln to serve as volunteers, employees and participants.

Some say they’re committed to the success of the fair and vow to follow it to Grand Island. Others say they’ll give Grand Island a try, but their contributions will be smaller.

And there are those who will bid farewell to their State Fair traditions. The fair is leaving to make way for development of a public-private research park.

“I’m going to cry a lot,” said Mary Lou Martin, a great-grandmother who has attended every fair for most of her life. “We just feel like we’re part of it.”

She and her siblings keep an informal family headquarters, “Toombs Corner,” near the food court.

“I just wish it (the fair) could have stayed here,” she said. “But we’ve got to change with the times.’’

Betting that many Lincoln-area residents will prefer staying closer to home, the Lancaster County Fair will beef up its events next year, expanding it from five to 10 days, said marketing director Rick Hinman.

Held at the Lancaster Event Center in northeast Lincoln, the fair’s name has been changed to the “Lancaster County Super Fair.”

Fair leaders will expand open class competitions in needlework, horticulture and fine arts and place stronger emphasis on horse and livestock shows.

This year saw a record 100,000 people come through the gates for the county fair, Hinman said.

“We had a lot of people who had never been to our fair before,” he said. “Part of that is coming from the State Fair leaving. They’re checking it out and kicking the tires.”

State Fair officials, both in Lincoln and Grand Island, say they are well-aware that many longtime workers, volunteers and exhibitors may not continue with the same level of involvement as in the past.

The State Fair Coalition, made up of Grand Island-area officials and fair administrators, already has begun the hunt for workers and volunteers for the 2010 fair.

At the State Fair’s west gate, Jodi Hughes of Seward and Jill Hitz of Lincoln said working at the fair has become a tradition, one they won’t be able to continue because of their day jobs.

Both are teachers. Hughes, who has worked here for 12 years, said she took the job for something to do in the fall after she stopped coaching volleyball. Hitz has worked at the fair for nine years.

They say it’s a fun job that gets them out among people and provides extra spending money for vacations and such. They’ve worked with the same people year after year — “it’s almost like a family reunion, coming back every year,” Hughes said.

Joseph McDermott, executive director of the State Fair, said about 600 workers are hired each year.

He said it might be a “concern” to find enough temporary workers in the Grand Island area, but the search for labor will extend into neighboring communities, such as Kearney and Hastings.

“We should be OK,” McDermott said.

Fair officials are considering strategies to encourage participation from the Lincoln and Omaha areas, such as remote entry locations for fair exhibits and shuttle buses to Grand Island.

Vendors, meanwhile, are concerned about the bottom line.

Laurie “Lolo” Novak of Lincoln, who has sold fair concessions since 1966, said she’s plans to take her food stands to Grand Island — but she’s worried.

“It’s the unknown,” she said. “I don’t know the players. Here I know the ice vendors, the meat guy, the electrician, the plumber.” She’s also worried about lodging expenses for her staff.

Lincoln restaurateur Mike Kazas, who runs the Papa John’s Genuine Greek Food stand, said he’s still crunching the numbers.

“I would have to take a set number of (staff) people and guarantee them a salary,” he said. “If business was slow, I couldn’t just send people home.”

Nonetheless, “I can’t imagine not going next year,” he said.

The Beef Pit, run by the Nebraska Cattlemen, will move to Grand Island. “We’ve been here a long time, and we’re going to keep going,” said Lee Weide, vice president of operations.

Several longtime exhibits may be changed or absent from future State Fairs.

Heritage Village, which features two historic structures, a one-room schoolhouse and the first log cabin built in Lancaster County, will be dismantled, with the buildings moved elsewhere.

The quilt show, spearheaded by volunteers from the Nebraska State Quilt Guild, will get a dedicated 10,000-square-foot room in Grand Island with special lighting and air conditioning.

Although the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission also will have a dedicated area of the Grand Island fairgrounds — its new pond already is under construction — the aging aquarium tanks in Lincoln won’t be moved, officials said.

The Lincoln Model Railroad Club, which has had displays at the fair for 25 years, plans to stick with the Lancaster County Fair, where it hopes to establish a museum, said club president Trevor Morgan.

Lisa Willman, coordinator of the State Fair Coalition, said the move to Grand Island will give a new group of Nebraskans a chance to be involved in the fair.

“There will be new ideas and renewed enthusiasm as well,” she said. “We told everybody we wanted to do this. Now we have to step up and prove that we can.”

World-Herald staff writers Kiah Haslett, Aaron C. James, Jamie Klein and Molly Young contributed to this report.

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