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CapitalPress.com
March 10, 2017
People & Places
For the love of county fairs
Ryann Newman
develops new
events for
fairgrounds
Western
Innovator
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
ORLAND, Calif. — Ry-
ann Newman grew up at fairs,
and her passion for them is
helping one county fair turn
the corner after a rough patch.
She spent her springs and
summers as a child going
from fair to fair as her family
operated the pony ride con-
cession they started in 1961.
At 18, she started taking po-
nies to fairs on her own, and at
21 she bought her own pony
ride business.
Now Newman, 41, breeds
and raises ponies with her
husband, Mike, on 50 acres
near Glenn, Calif., and she
takes her concession — Ry-
ann’s Happy Day Pony Ride
— to the Washington State
Fair, the Alameda County Fair
and nine other festivals.
She often thought of man-
aging a fair when she retired,
but two years ago supporters
of the struggling Glenn Coun-
ty Fair asked her to take over.
“I’ve always loved fairs.
I’ve supported fairs all my
life,” Newman said.
New events
As fair manager, New-
man has come up with new
ways of getting people to the
fairgrounds and generating
revenue. In November, the
fairgrounds hosted its inau-
gural North State Precision
Ag Expo and Farm Business
Forum, a two-day event fea-
turing workshops and panel
discussions on the newest of
precision agriculture equip-
ment as well as best business
practices.
Ryann Newman
Occupation: Glenn County
Fair manager
Hometown: Glenn, Calif.
Age: 41
Family: Husband, Mike
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Ryann Newman feeds ponies at her ranch near Glenn, Calif. A pony ride concessionaire for fairs, New-
man was hired two years ago to manage the struggling Glenn County Fair and has sought new ways to
get people to the fairgrounds, including by hosting the inaugural Precision Ag Expo in November.
She started the event to
provide more educational op-
portunities for Northern Cal-
ifornia farmers and ranchers,
she said, and this year’s expo
and forum will consist of a
single “track” rather than two
so every attendee can be at ev-
ery session.
On Saturday, the fair-
grounds will host a “Barn
Beautification,” bringing in
community volunteers and
using donated paint and other
materials to prepare the barns
for the upcoming fair in May.
“We wanted to have the
whole community come out
and spruce up our auction fa-
cilities,” Newman said. “We
just don’t have the means to
keep up with our maintenance.
… My goal is to get the com-
munity to have some owner-
ship of their fair again.”
Fairs in California have
been hard-hit by state budget
cuts. The 2015-16 state bud-
get included $10 million for
fairs, most of which went for
overdue repairs and upgrades
to facilities. Local fairs have
sought innovative ways to
bring in money, including the
Shasta District Fair in Ander-
son, Calif., where a boosters’
club was formed to sell raffle
tickets, operate a beer booth at
the fair and do other fundrais-
ers.
At the Glenn County Fair,
the community was “disen-
gaged” when the fairgrounds
had an opening for a manager
in 2015, and Newman’s goal
has been to get the fairgrounds
to be self-supporting “as a via-
ble business,” she said.
“It’s such a bad business
model to run a 55-acre facility
based on a four-day event and
some side events,” Newman
said. “Back in the day, fair-
grounds would get between
$175,000 and $250,000 (a
year) for maintenance. In the
last year, we got $45,000.
“We’re running this close
all the time,” she said, holding
her thumb and forefinger close
together.
Emergency shelter
One of Newman’s efforts
has been to get local residents
to recognize the importance
of the fairgrounds. The site is
available for private fundrais-
ers and other events, and when
the Oroville Dam’s spillway
problems forced evacuations
in February, the fairgrounds
provided shelter and meals for
150 people.
“Our community just su-
per-stepped up,” Newman said.
Local Boy Scouts volunteered
and businesses donated wa-
ter and other goods. “We can
take livestock, RVs and a large
number of people. On our fair-
grounds we have five kitchens
and 28 showers. That’s every
fair in every county.”
Another way she’s trying to
re-engage local residents is to
host “Glenn County’s largest
all-class reunion” during the
fair May 18-21, featuring com-
petitions between schools and
classes, she said.
She’s also bringing back a
series of mini-stock car rac-
es this summer, and has been
working on putting in a soccer
field to boost rentals.
Newman has also become
involved with Western Fairs
Association and is working on
animal welfare issues. She says
animal activists are targeting
fairs.
“If this industry dies, we’ve
got thousands of people who
are out of work,” Newman
said. “It’s amazing the com-
merce that exists off the fair
industry.”
Newman says her career
as a concessionaire has given
her the unique perspective of
seeing fair management “from
both sides.”
“It’s a very challenging
job,” she said. “It’s not like
they’re just throwing a big
party with unlimited funds.”
Newman appreciates the
community support she gets.
“I want people to be proud
of the fair,” she said.
Former capitol pillar lives on as flagpole monument
Capital Press
SUBLIMITY, Ore. —
More than eight decades after
the Oregon state capitol burned
down, a recovered piece of one
of its pillars serves as a monu-
ment to U.S. veterans at a Sub-
limity, Ore., farm.
G&M Scott Farm owners
Guy and Mary Ann Scott built
a tribute to honor past and
present U.S. veterans from a
pillar a relative took from the
Capitol site after it burned
down in 1935. The pillar,
which now serves as a base for
their flagpole, sits outside their
home.
They plan to dedicate the
monument this spring “as soon
as the weather gets better,”
Mary Ann said.
After a fire that started in
the basement of the capitol
left it decimated in 1935, all
of the pillars that stood at the
Calendar
front of the building were bro-
ken. Crews threw out most of
them, but the uncle of Guy’s
cousin picked up one of the
pieces before it could be dis-
posed of.
The piece of pillar went to
their cousin. Mary Ann Scott
purchased it for $10 at the
cousin’s auction five years
ago.
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“Submit an Event.” Calendar items
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1400 Broadway St. NE, Salem, OR
97301 or emailed to newsroom@
capitalpress.com.
Through Sunday
March 12
Natural Products Expo West,
Anaheim Convention Center, Marri-
ott and Hilton hotels, 800 W. Katella
Ave., Anaheim, Calif. www.expow-
est.com
Saturday, March 11
Northwest Bison Association
annual meeting. 8:30 a.m.-5:30
p.m. Forest Grove Senior Center,
2037 Douglas St., Forest Grove,
Ore. The NWBA annual meeting
will focus on small-scale bison
ranching and facility setup and
lots of stories from ranchers that
have seen everything from tires
as a fence to our setups and ev-
erything between. Richard Vee-
man with Veterinary Services of
Oregon will speak on his experi-
ence with bison along with Pat
Fitzgerald with Fitzgerald Corrals.
A ranch tour of the L Bar T Bison
Ranch is included. Pre-registra-
tion is preferred but not required.
www.nwbisonassociation.com
Wednesday, March 15
Pudding River Meeting. 6:30-8
p.m. Seven Brides Brewing Co.,
990 N. First St., Silverton, Ore.
Meet the Pudding River Water-
shed Council Board and hear a
presentation by Susan Barnes,
Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife region wildlife biologist.
Sponsored by the watershed
council, ODFW, and the Clacka-
mas Soil and Water Conservation
District.
Agricultural Biodiversity on
Farms: Conservation Practices
Working for Western Farmers. 8
a.m.-5 p.m. McMenamins Edge-
field, 2126 SW Halsey St. Trout-
dale, Ore. A first-of-its-kind confer-
ence on the benefits of agricultural
biodiversity in Western farming
systems and the practices that
support it. Sponsored by the
Oregon State University Inte-
grated Plant Protection Center,
the Xerces Society and Oregon
Tilth. http://bit.ly/2kpWRsK
Thursday, March 16
Small Farms and Community
Food Systems Workshop Se-
ries. 6-8:30 p.m. University of
Idaho Extension, 2200 Michi-
gan Ave., Orofino, Idaho. This
Capital Press
Guy and Mary Ann Scott converted a column a family member
recovered from the 1935 State Capitol fire into a flag pole outside
their home in Sublimity, Ore.
“It’s just such a unique
piece of history and no one
else I know has one, so I
had to get it,” she said. “I
kind of thought from the be-
ginning I wanted to make a
flag pole out of it.”
Originally, she said she
wanted to restore the pillar, but
her daughters talked her into
keeping it in its original state.
The task of turning a bro-
ken piece of an old capitol pil-
lar into the base of a flag pole
became a family project when
Mary Ann recruited the help
of her grandson, daughters
and a friend to help.
“It’s really quite beautiful
with the angled brick inside,”
she said.
Guy and Mary Ann are the
sixth generation of Scotts to
live on the family’s 400-acre
farm. They rent out some of the
land for grass seed and Christ-
mas trees and tend the forested
portions, Mary Ann said.
Guy’s great grandmother’s
husband originally home-
steaded the land in 1849 and
the Scotts bought it in 1852.
The couple has lived there
since they married in 1951.
They said they decided to
dedicate the flagpole monu-
ment to U.S. veterans because
of Guy’s experience in the
Army in 1953 and 1954.
GASES / WELDING / SAFETY / FIRE
www.oxarc.com
is the second of three Thursday
evening workshops. Topic is
beekeeping, honey production,
pollination and bee biology fea-
turing Pat Ball of Ball Honey
Co. Please mail registrations
with payment to UI Extension
Workshop Fund, 2200 Michigan
Ave., Orofino, ID 83544 prior to
the workshop. Sign-in will begin
at 5:30 each evening. Seating
is limited to 25 people. Cost:
$5 per workshop or $10 for all
three.
Building Family Business
Value from the Inside Out. 7:30
to 9 a.m. BridgePort BrewPub,
1313 NW Marshall St., Port-
land. Much can be done to build
the value of the business from
inside the enterprise, and the
earlier the process begins, the
more sustainable the results will
be. In addition to building value,
most businesses become more
efficient and profitable along
the way. Presented by Francis
Brown, Key Private Bank and
the Austin Family Business
Program, Oregon State Univer-
sity. 800-859-7609, http://bit.
ly/2gR3KC0
Sunday, March 19
Home Orchard Society 42nd
20 Northwest Locations
Fruit Propagation Fair. 10 a.m.-
4 p.m. Clackamas County Fair-
grounds Main Pavilion, 694 NE
Fourth Ave., Canby, Ore. Hun-
dreds of varieties of free scions
and cuttings. If you graft this is
paradise, or you can choose
custom grafting by experts for
$5. Free with your admission are
hundreds of varieties of apple,
pear, cherry, plum and persim-
mon scions; cuttings of grapes,
kiwis, and figs to root; and ex-
perts to answer fruit growing
questions. Cost: $7 per person
(family $12) www.homeorchard-
society.org/events
Tuesday-Thursday
March 21-23
LEAP Logger Education. Uni-
versity of Idaho Extension Koo-
tenai County Office, 1808 North
Third St., Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
LEAP, or Logger Education to
Advance Professionalism, is
a national extension program
started at the request of loggers
who wanted to improve their
skills and market their services
more effectively to forest owners
and managers. The course fea-
tures two days indoors and one
day with field exercises on forest
biology, forest ecology, silvicul-
ture and forest water quality. It
is taught by University of Idaho
faculty and Idaho Department
1-800-765-9055
of Lands personnel. Cost: $75,
or $79 online registration. www.
uidaho.edu/extension/forestry/
calendar
Thursday, March 23
Small Farms and Community
Food Systems Workshop Series.
6-8:30 p.m. University of Idaho
Extension, 2200 Michigan Ave.,
Orofino, Idaho. This is the last
of three Thursday evening work-
shops. Topic is marketing ag prod-
ucts in Northern Idaho featuring
Iris Mayes, UI Extension. Please
mail registrations with payment
to UI Extension Workshop Fund,
2200 Michigan Ave., Orofino,
ID 83544 prior to the workshop.
Sign-in will begin at 5:30 each
evening. Seating is limited to 25
people. Cost: $5 per workshop or
$10 for all three.
Friday-Sunday
March 24-26
18th Annual Northwest Horse
Fair and Expo. 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday
and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Linn
County Fair and Expo Center,
3700 Knox Butte Road, Albany,
Ore. Three days of clinics, semi-
nars and performances for horse
enthusiasts. Cost: Adults $12 a
day, children ages 6-12 $6 a day.
Parking $4. www.equinepromo-
tions.net
Capital Press
Established 1928
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Capital Press Managers
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Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
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Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager
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Index
California ...............................11
Idaho ...................................... 9
Markets ............................... 13
Opinion .................................. 6
Oregon .................................. 8
Washington ......................... 10
Water ..................................... 7
Correction
In the March 3 edition, the
location the Washington State
Department of Agriculture would
secure hemp seeds was incor-
rectly listed as Yakima. They will
be stored in Spokane if the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administra-
tion issues the state a permit to
import the federally controlled
substance.
The Capital Press regrets the
error.
Correction policy
Accuracy is important to Capital
Press staff and to our readers.
If you see a misstatement,
omission or factual error in a
headline, story or photo caption,
please call the Capital Press
news department at
503-364-4431, or send email to
newsroom@capitalpress.com.
We want to publish corrections to
set the record straight.