PAROWAN — Iron County has moved closer to officially taking over ownership of city-owned portions of the Iron County Fairgrounds from Parowan City.
At its regular meeting on Dec. 13, the Iron County Commission unanimously approved a document titled “Fairground Transfer Agreement,” which outlines the terms and conditions involved in the transfer of approximately 38 acres of fairgrounds property in two separate parcels.
In order to be finalized, the agreement still has to be approved by the Parowan City Council, which is expected to take action on the item during its Jan. 13 regular meeting.
Iron County Commissioner Marilyn Wood said the new agreement makes sense given Parowan’s limited resources.
“It’s really our turn to step up,” she said. “The county actually owns the fair building anyway. It’s the property around it that they’re putting over to us, but they’ve been taking care of all the utilities and the maintenance and all of that.”
Without the agreement, the portion of the 50-acre fairgrounds property owned by the county amounts to less than 12 acres, with Parowan City currently owning the remaining 38-plus acres.
Commissioner Paul Cozzens noted that most counties in Utah own and operate their fairgrounds, which was another reason Parowan City asked the county to take over.
“It’s been kind of a unique relationship between us and Parowan, and it has been fine,” he said. “But like I said, most counties own their fairgrounds. And so we feel like it’s probably a step in the right direction, where we have the resources to improve it.”
Both Wood and Cozzens pointed to the recent replacement of the rodeo grandstand bleachers as an example of a much-needed infrastructure improvement that the county undertook.
Cozzens said the century-old wooden bleachers needed to be replaced for safety reasons.
“We were sad to see them go because of the nostalgic value,” he said. “As we were tearing them down, we just found that they’d put a lot of new wood over rotten wood. They just weren’t safe. We just couldn’t risk it.”
Cozzens said the new bleachers will hold about 40% more people “in about the same footprint” as the previous bleachers, and he added that the county has several other improvement projects included in its long-term plans for the fairgrounds.
“We basically want to grade the whole property, kill the weeds, gravel it and basically make the whole property look like where they have the carnival,” Cozzens told Cedar City News on Monday. “We want to make the whole fairgrounds look like that and add more parking, with better ingress and egress.”
Cozzens said he believes much of that planned work can be done using county resources.
“With our road department and the equipment and manpower we have, we feel like we can do some of that heavy lifting,” he said. “It won’t be that big of a burden on the county. We can do the sweat equity and do the work with the equipment we have.”
Cozzens said that if Parowan City should decide to expand its recreational offerings on the adjacent property, such as a new swimming pool complex, they could build it in a location where parking could be shared with the county fairgrounds.
“I think it’ll be a win-win for everybody,” he said.
Wood noted that a handful of annual events that Parowan has been staging on the fairgrounds have been granted exceptions so they can continue to operate without the city having to pay fees to the county. The five grandfathered events are Sub for Santa and Christmas in the County, Parowan’s birthday celebration in mid-January, the Parowan Marathon in August and a swap meet in March.
In addition to event scheduling, permits and collection of fees, the proposed agreement also covers various other details, including payroll, inventory, parking, maintenance and utilities. To see a copy of the full document, click here. A detailed property map is available here.
Wood and Cozzens also both noted that there is no intention by the commission, nor has there been, to move the county fair to any other location.
“We’ve put too much money into it,” Wood said, “and where would we go?”
Cozzens said the rumors are “completely not true.”
“We love having the fair in Parowan, and we have no intention of ever moving it,” he said and echoed Woods comments about the amount of money the county has invested in the current property.
“Speaking personally,” he added, “our family loves the small-town feel and the nostalgia of going to the mother town for the fair and parade. It’s just a lot of fun.”
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.