Amador County – As Amador County Fair CEO Troy Bowers prepared last week to head to the Western Fairs Association annual convention this week in Reno, he had both bad news and good news.
The bad news was the proposed governor’s budget cut of 100 percent of state fair funding in California. But the good news was the Western Fairs Association has selected another former Amador County Fair director for induction into the Western Fairs Association Hall of Fame.
Bowers said it is a “huge honor for Amador County and for Susie Clark” of Plymouth, who will be inducted into the WFA Hall of Fame this year for her work at the El Dorado County Fair, the Amador County Fair, and the Western Fairs Association.
“She’s unique in that she will join her husband Ralph in the hall of fame,” Bowers said, noting that “they are the only husband and wife team that is in the WFA Hall of Fame.”
They will join Ciro Toma as the third member of the WFA Hall of Fame from Amador County. Bowers said Toma was formerly the only fair director to serve as president of the Western Fairs Association, until this year’s induction of Michael F. Treacy.
Susie Clark, according to the WFA Hall of Fame announcement, “has spent the last 25 years dedicated to the fair industry. She served as the CEO of the El Dorado County Fair, the Redwood Empire Fair and the Amador County Fair,” and “various boards and committees.”
The WFA said her “passion and enthusiasm for the fair industry, along with her innovative business skills, have proved to be extremely effective with individual fairs, committees, boards and the personnel she has taken under her wing.”
With three Amador County Fair inductees, Bowers said “we’re among the elite for sure.” Toma was inducted in the 1980s, and Susie’s husband, Ralph Clark also served as WFA president and was inducted in the late 1990s.
The WFA represents all fairs west of the Mississippi, Bowers said. This year’s other WFA Hall of Fame inductee, Michael F. Treacy, was a longtime CEO of Kern County Fair, and Jackson County Fair. He was also executive director of the Division of Fairs and Expositions, and “worked with other key industry players to acquire the $32 million general fund continuous appropriations for fairs” in California.
That allocation is now being considered for cutting from the state budget proposed by the governor.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
