×
X logo

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox.

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)

You may opt-out anytime by clicking "unsubscribe" from the newsletter or from your account.

F&F Fund Money Very Well Spent

It took some doing, but the cow finally “mooed” for me. It was the first time my granddaughter had ever heard the sound a cow really makes. It also was the first time she’d ever touched a sheep.

All in all, the couple of hours she spent at the Ohio County Country Fair last year were quite an education, and I don’t mean that figuratively. She learned things she’d never pick up anywhere else, except perhaps on a farm.

And she had fun. So did lots of other kids who also were benefiting from the once-a-year classroom that is almost any county fair.

It’s fairs and festivals time, with something on tap in our area just about every week until after Labor Day. This weekend’s offering, still in progress at the Heritage Port in Wheeling, is the Upper Ohio Valley Italian Heritage Festival.

There, you can sample authentic (and not so genuine) Italian food, play some games, learn a little about Italy and perhaps your own ancestors — and support an organization that has handed out scores of college scholarships.

What brings this up? A look at the state budget. With it came the reflection that some of the best-spent money we taxpayers hand out every year is in the Fairs and Festivals line item.

It has been under attack for many years. Critics say the state shouldn’t be funding the scores of special events that get F&F money. What benefit to taxpayers is it to budget $8,354 for the Alpine Festival/Leaf Peepers Festival in Tucker County, they ask. And what about the $11,138 for the Webster County Wood Chopping Festival or the $3,713 for the Dandelion Festival in Greenbrier County?

Similar complaints are not heard about more politically correct funding such as that for musical and theatric performances, I would note.

Here’s the thing, if you haven’t already guessed: Funding events where home canners show off their grape jelly, men compete at bocce ball and teenagers display the livestock they’ve raised doesn’t appeal to some in the mover-and-shaker class. Not sophisticated enough.

But I suspect that if you had the time to make the rounds of the F&F money recipients (around seven pages of them in the budget document), you’d come to the same conclusion I have. These events do an enormous amount of good, ranging from scholarships to donations to worthy causes (including, I would note to the movers and shakers, children facing physical and emotional challenges). They are educational in ways school teachers strive to be. Where else are you going to learn as much about the days when the Ohio Valley was the frontier as at Fort Henry Days in Wheeling ($3,936 in F&F funding)?

And yes, they’re fun.

Earlier this year, F&F critics saw their chance: The state’s budget was way out of balance. Why not eliminate all F&F funding?

Deleting the entire F&F line item ($1,853,663 last year) would have done little good in the context of a $4 billion general revenue budget, of course. But I suspect that wasn’t the real point. The program’s critics just don’t like it.

In the end, 10 percent of F&F funding was cut. That’s more like shared sacrifice.

Next year, no doubt, the F&F fund’s enemies will be back with their knives. Wonder if a day at the Tyler County Fair would change their attitude?

Probably not. They wouldn’t understand.

Myer can be reached at: mmyer@theintelligencer.net.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

COMMENTS

Starting at $4.73/week.

Subscribe Today