DuPage County Fair’s Future in Question?

There have been recent rumblings that the DuPage County Fairgrounds may again be sold off. The substantial parcel of land is used for the primary purpose of hosting the DuPage County Fair.

At first, I was strictly opposed to such an option. After-all, years of tradition and good times are at stake. The fairgrounds are centrally located in Wheaton adjacent to the county courthouse and jail. This is DuPage’s county seat as it stands.

Senator Dan Cronin leaves the sale of the fairgrounds as an open option to offset some of the difficult fiscal problems that currently plague DuPage County. He does not, however, write off the DuPage County Fair, but seems interested in finding other viable venues for the event.

It does seem rather silly to maintain the fairgrounds property year-round for the primary purpose of hosting the annual fair. Maintenance costs alone must be staggering.

What do you think? Is it a better option to host the fair on another open land parcel or preserve district property so the current fairgrounds can be sold to developers? I for one don’t think it is a terrible option if doing so reduces the DuPage County tax burden on residents. I’m just not so sure it will.

Something tells me that any revenue generated from the sale of the current fairgrounds would be immediately pounced on for pet-projects. There goes the cynic in me again…