Two appointed to Fair Board seats
Longtime 4-H leader Wes McAlpin and downtown Kalispell businessman C.M. “Butch” Clark were appointed to the Flathead County Fair Board on Tuesday by the county commissioners.
McAlpin will fill out the remainder of Paul Atkinson’s term, which expires Dec. 31, 2010. Atkinson resigned from the board earlier this year when Jay Scott’s contract was not renewed as fair manager.
Clark was appointed to serve the remainder of Susan Munsinger’s term, which expires Dec. 31, 2011. Munsinger resigned amid the controversy over Scott being ousted from his job.
The two new members join current board members Butch Woolard and Joy Struble. Ted Dykstra Jr. also is on the board, but took a temporary leave of absence to serve as interim fair manager.
Among the first tasks for the board will be hiring a new fair manager. Forty-five people have applied for the fair manager job.
Sixteen applicants vied for the two board openings, including Scott, who told the commissioners in his application letter he believed his knowledge of fair operations would make him a valuable board member. He served as fair manager for 14 years.
Other board applicants were Terry Fosbery, a former Fair Board member who recently wasn’t reappointed, Phillip Guiffrida III, Edwin Hankinson, Don Hines, Jack D. Jones, Jeffrey Jung, Chuck Pierce, Ron Schlegel, Ron Thibert, Marcie Riley Young, Bill Voermans, Chuck Warren and Craig Witte.
McAlpin was active in 4-H and FFA as a youth. As an adult and parent he has been active in the Lake County Junior Fair, Western Montana Fair in Missoula and since moving to the Flathead Valley in 2001 he has been an active 4-H leader at the Northwest Montana Fair.
He has served as a 4-H project leader, showmanship judge, livestock scale operator and organizer for the FFA market livestock buyers’ lunch.
McAlpin currently is vice chairman of the 4-H livestock committee and has been a certified 4-H shooting sports instructor in several disciplines for the past 12 years.
In his letter of interest, he noted that since his son has moved on to college, he has liquidated his market lamb breeding herd and now has an opportunity to become “even more active as a volunteer for programs that I believe in.
“In light of present-day uncertainty regarding management of the fairgrounds and personnel, I feel I can be a valuable, unbiased asset to the board with no ax to grind and no personal agenda other than to make the fair and fairgrounds an important, efficient and often-used facility for the area,” he wrote to the commissioners.
McAlpin is a water resource specialist in the Kalispell Unit Office of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.
CLARK and his wife, Janet, own and operate the Kalispell Grand Hotel in downtown Kalispell. They also own and operate a Flathead Valley ranch where they raise cattle and hay. The Clarks own, manage and lease 18 parcels of residential, commercial, office and industrial property.
In his application, Clark said he believes the fair is a vital part of the Flathead’s heritage and he’s interested “in what the fair brings to our younger generation and in particular their involvement in FFA and 4-H.
“I also believe that the fairgrounds is an integral part of the county’s economic engine, not only at fair time, but what the two new event buildings will ultimately generate in revenues not only for the fairgrounds but the business community as a whole,” he wrote.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com