County committee questions fairground storage process

BESSEMER — In an attempt to streamline the organization and documentation of seasonal storage at the Gogebic County Fairgrounds, one of the committees of the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners is requesting clarification of how the system has been managed to date.

Members of the Personnel and Negotiations Committee voted last week to send to Thomas Hampston, a member of the county Fair Board, a letter with a list of questions regarding the storage process.

The letter signed by Committee Chairman Daniel Siirila began as follows: “A recent physical audit of the items in seasonal storage of the Gogebic County Fairgrounds indicates that 33 out of 41 items stored lacked a completed rental agreement, and that 32 of the 41 items stored lacked proof of insurance.”

Siirila added that both the rental agreement and proof of insurance are required pursuant to past rulings by county commissioners.

“The lack of completed rental agreements and proofs of insurance increase the county’s personal property liability and potentially reduce rental revenue,” said the letter.

Siirila added that it is the committee’s understanding that Hampston coordinated the fairground’s seasonal storage. Hence, the letter was directed to him, along with questions regarding the reasons why the current problems were discovered.

Specific questions included, but were not limited to, whether the fair board at large agreed to storage procedures and whether the delivery of storage was supervised.

Siirila was among county officials who recently inspected the state of fairground storage.

Hampston was not present at the meeting, but he has told committee and board members in the past that some payments simply had not yet been received or that some issues were overlooked.

In other news at the March 27 meeting, committee members also voted to advertise a vacancy on the Department of Health and Human Services Board. The board was left with a vacancy after the March 20 passing of Daniel Adams.

Both votes were unanimous with all members present.