SOUTH WHIDBEY: Sound Off: A little fairgrounds history from a port perspective (CURT GORDON/SWR)

Port of South Whidbey Commissioner Curt Gordon wrote a Sound Off column for the South Whidbey Record outlining the Port’s acquisition and management of the Island County Fairgrounds in Langley. Gordon’s column appeared in the paper’s Nov. 11, 2023 edition.

They Said It

In 2015, the Island Fair Association advised the Island County commissioners that they would not continue to act as fairground stewards, which put future fairs into jeopardy…. Back then, Island County owned the fairgrounds, but Fair Association was the steward….In a desperate scramble to save the fair event and the fairgrounds, county and Port of South Whidbey commissioners created a plan to have the port take over the fairgrounds on an interim basis. The port would manage and maintain the grounds, providing relief to the Fair Association while studying the practicality of maintaining and renovating all the old buildings long-term.

Next, the port went to the voters of South Whidbey in 2017 asking if they would like the port to take over the fairgrounds and if so, would they support a small maintenance and operation levy? The voters agreed and the port took ownership.

Within a couple of years, with no maintenance cost outlay, the Fair Association became profitable again, banking more than $100,000 in profit in 2021. The port had clearly met its contractual commitment to Island County to “secure the use of the property for … an agricultural fair” and had reduced the “financial burden on the … Island County Fair Association’s annual fair.”…

Simply put, the port’s objective is to continue to manage and improve the fairgrounds without placing an increased tax burden on South Whidbey taxpayers