BROKEN BOW – During the evening of its June 21 special meeting, the Custer County Ag Society waded through the murk of actualities, premiums, and deductibles on its path to reinsuring the fairgrounds.
The decision came literally hours before a June 23 deadline which would have caused a lapse in the fairgrounds’ coverage. The Ag Society heard quotes on its buildings, employees, and machinery from two providers: Insurance of the Heartland and the Jones Group.
In reevaluating the fairgrounds’ coverage, Sharon Roberts of Insurance of the Heartland said that since 2017, the claims received totaled just over $1 million. For perspective, the Ag Society has about $5.1 million worth of insurable buildings on the fairgrounds.
Roberts said that the sum could be almost entirely attributed to one part of the grounds: its structures. She went on to say that virtually all of those claims were the result of severe weather, to be expected in Nebraska.
“Those are our biggest chances for a claim: wind and hail. No matter what. We’re out in Nebraska. Burwell had a huge claim last year.”
Mandy Craig, a representative of Jones Group, concurred with the assessment, saying that in her experience with ag societies, the difficulty in keeping fairgrounds effectively insured stems simply from the density of buildings.
“It’s a problem. You just have a lot of property in a concentrated area. It’s not like one building’s on one side of town, and another’s on the other side. When you get hit, you get smacked.”
The Jones Group’s quote would not include the fairgrounds’ structures. After a 30-minute executive session, the board would opt for property coverage through the Jones Group policy as presented.
The board also reopened discussions about renting a generator for camper and RV sites for the fair. After the board had initially leaned away from the $3600 rental for the week, Board President Kent Nelson reasoned that forgoing the generator wouldn’t be right, as the decision would close off traditionally available spaces.
“I know it’s maybe a money-losing deal, but I don’t want to see 9 spots unavailable that have been available over the past couple of years.”
Board member Rodney Lamb, after having spoken to community members about the possibility of bringing back the rented generator, concurred.
“Knee-jerk reaction is the generator costs too much, but do we tell people they can’t come? I don’t like doing that either.”
The board unanimously approved renting the generator for the upcoming fair. Funding for the rental would be the board’s next hurdle; grant cycles tend to be closed until fall, and sponsors and advertisers have generally been locked in for the fair season. However, the Tail Twisters 4-H group has tentatively offered to front some of the cost, as historically it has used the generator to the greatest extent.
Finally, the board revisited the potential purchase of a stall-cleaning vacuum in the wake of the recent equestrian contract negotiations. While the Ag Society generally agreed that such a purchase would be inevitable given the fairgrounds’ strained labor force, the problem of funding and delivery would make buying the vacuum unreasonable in the immediate future.
Ideally, the Ag Society would have the unit on-site for next month’s fair, which seems unlikely, as none are currently readily available. The board ultimately opted to consider putting the vacuum on its Winter Ball wish list. The meeting adjourned at 10:05 p.m.
