Booze sales at Walla Walla Fair & Frontier Days changes hands

June 18--WALLA WALLA -- Beer, wine and hard liquor sales are being rejiggered this year at the Walla Walla Fair & Frontier Days.

Serving will be handled by Oregon Beverage Services of Salem, after The Walla Walla Wagon Wheelers, which for many years handled beer and malt beverage sales, opted to no longer take part.

Oregon Beverage Services was one of four organizations that responded to a request for proposals the Fair & Frontier Days board sent out in May. Under the contract, the company will return 30 percent of its gross sales to the county fairgrounds as well as meet requirements in to licensing, personnel training, monitoring and insurance.

The change from not having the Wagon Wheelers sell beer and malt beverages is difficult but necessary, said Sam Waldron, who serves on the fair and Wagon Wheelers boards.

The community service club founded in 1936 has had "a long ongoing partnership" with the Fair & Frontier Days board and the past year has involved a lot of discussions, he said.

Waldron said he and the late former Sheriff Mike Humphreys, who was also a member with the fair and Wagon Wheelers, visited fairs throughout the region to see how to attract more people to the Fair & Frontier Days. The liquor sales were among things the fair board is trying "to bring something totally new to the fair" and broaden its attraction to a new generation. Waldron said.

The Wagon Wheelers were offered the contract twice, once because they had the right of first refusal and the second time when the request for proposals was put out. Ultimately the group declined due to not having enough personnel and the need to meet requirements for selling hard liquor.

Liquor sales have been at the fair for the past five years at the concert bar and for the past three years at the outdoor dance event, Waldron and others said. While the Wagon Wheelers handled sales of beer and malt beverages, hard liquor service had been handled by the Fair & Frontier Days Foundation.

Clark Hansen, Wagon Wheeler board member, said the loss of revenue to the Wagon Wheelers will affect the organization. Although the group has reserve funds to help it retain its riding facility on Hussey Street, there are ongoing expenses and tax bills to meets. The revenue loss will also, ultimately, "have an effect on the money we've given back to the community and even to the fair itself," he said.

At a June 2Walla Walla County Commission meeting, Hansen said that the change was a "tough decision" the fair board had to make.

Commission Chairman Jim Johnson agreed the change was difficult, but something the fair board felt it needed to do to meet changing times.

"You hate to see the association with the Wagon Wheelers cease, but time moves on," Johnson said.

Andy Porter can be reached at andyporter@wwub.com or 526-8318.

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