NICK GOSNELL Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Kansas State Fair Board on Tuesday talked to their legal counsel and after their advice, decided that it would be best to hold off a decision on any potential racetrack proposals until their January meeting.
Answers had yet to come from the Department of Administration on whether a full-year track proposal like the one laid out by Phil Nightingale would require a formal RFP process.
While they await those answers, they want to learn more about what the proposal with Mel Hambleton Ford in charge might look like, so Nightingale and Save Our Track leader William Nusser will be serving on a committee during December.
The commitee is to be chaired by Fair Board member Dylan Evans and to include Fair Board members John Leslie and Bob Atkisson representing the board and Fair Board member Kayla Savage serving in her capacity with the Department of Commerce.
Also, there are plans to ask a member of the Chamber or CVB to serve and to have a member from the Hutchinson City Council.
Those committee meetings will be public. Evans asked that in light of the Christmas holiday, that the committee not meet between Dec. 16 and Dec. 26.
The intent is for that committee to come back with a report for the board on Jan. 9, 2024 and for a decision to be made then.
There are issues that waiting until January creates. Sanctioning bodies want to be able to give racers an idea of which tracks will be racing when and so they usually try to get deals for the next spring done the previous fall or winter.
If the Department of Administration decides that there needs to be a lengthy RFP period of 30 or 60 days, depending on when they let the Fair Board's lawyers know, that could make it impossible to race in the spring, not to mention giving the Fair Board more potential proposals to need to look through.
Also, there are still the five wall panels that need to be replaced and the dirt work that needs to be done on the track itself that now likely can't happen until the ground thaws out, presuming we have freezing weather between now and the Jan. 9 meeting.