Fair is a business now

The lawsuit filed by an injured fairgoer against the Lorain County Fair board, former fair board member Tom Denes, his companion Kelly Schwarz, and others, is disturbing. It troubles us, not because the actions happened precipitating the lawsuit, but because the fair board allowed situations to persist which allowed the actions to happen.

The Lorain County Fair is one of the largest in the state. Folks in these parts look forward to it each year and begin counting the days to the next one from the time the current fair ends.

It's a big party atmosphere, but the fair is much more than a group of friends getting together. The fair is a business, and the fair board is its board of directors.

We would not expect a member of the board of directors for a major corporation to willfully violate the policies of the board. We wonder, then, how Denes's companion, Schwarz, could be intoxicated when the fair board has an established policy against alcoholic beverages on the fairgrounds during the fair.

A fair board member, acting in the capacity of a corporate director, is responsible for the proper use of fair board property, or property entrusted to the fair board, such as the all-terrain vehicle which crashed in this incident. Denes's failure in this regard resulted in the naming of Polen Implement as a defendant, and, in fact, precipitated the whole incident.

The fair board properly terminated Denes's service on the board. But the move could be seen as an admission of guilt.

Of course, guilt and liability would be for the court and jury to decide. We would not presume to assign blame when there is certainly enough blame to go around for everyone involved.

But we would like to point out the fair is fun, but it is serious business. We would expect those responsible for its operation to treat it as such.