GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Clay County Emergency Management Director John Ward and Sheriff Michelle Cook provided updates on the Clay County Fair, which concluded Sunday. At Tuesday night’s Board of County Commission meeting, Ward said planning for the safety side of the fair begins in September.

The county and Clay County Sheriff’s Office have a unified command, based out of the Emergency Operations Center with multiple emergency-related officials present.

“They’re able to act accordingly for emergency events or anything that’s needed,” Ward said.

The fair was beset by rain on multiple days, and Ward said rain flooded the parking Saturday. He said there were 190 cases of a vehicles getting stuck, 270 calls for service and two arrests. The county’s Emergency Medical Services team contacted 37 patients and transported two people.

Ward said he’s been coordinating with the fair for about 12 years. With this year’s event, the parking lot never got a chance to dry out.

“We never saw that amount of rainfall up front at the end of March and April,” he said. “The ground was already saturated.”

There were also issues with the wind, which sometimes reached 25 mph and at one point clocked in at 50 mph.

He said the county maintained close contact with ride company Deggeller Attractions. The county and other agencies also monitored the static displays and other systems during high gusts.

“We had a lot of safety teams with fire rescue, sheriff’s office and fair to really address some of those, some of the stuff you could have come down throughout the week,” Ward said.

Ward later referred to the 2020 Clay County Fair’s cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2021 event being the first fair to return. He said on the rain-soaked third day of this year’s fair, 7,800 people attended, which is considered a low number since it was on Sunday.

“The good thing is they were able to recover some of that population,” he said.

Due to the Clay County Fair’s relationships with several other states and fairs, several fair-based organizations toured Clay County’s safety operation during the event. He said the fair is easily one of the top-five fairs in the state.

“Kudos to the team there,” he added.

Cook said county agencies exhibited strong partnerships during the event. She said the agencies handled things they had never seen at the event before.

“... Watching this unfold and how responsive and cooperative everybody was, you know, one team, one mission, one fight,” Cook said. “And working through a very messy, and in many cases especially on the days with the wind, dangerous situations.

So, the fact that we were able to work our way through this fair with everything that was presented and still come out with a very nice-sized crowd and no major injuries is commendable to the team.”

BCC Commissioner Jim Renninger said he attended the fair almost every day.

“I wanted to compliment the residents and clientele that attended the fair, with all the challenges, they were well, happy and just accommodating every challenge that was put in front of them, whether it be rain, traffic or whatever,” Renninger said. “It was a pleasure to see no aggravated people at the fair.”