HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – During the Great Northern Fair Board meeting earlier this week, the Hill County Commissioners informed the Board that they can’t hire their Fair Manager as an independent contractor and the manager must be an employee of the county. Fair Board Chairman Tyler Smith says they will put advertise the job again and will hopefully have a new manager installed by mid-June.
“We got an opinion from our county earlier in the year that we could do a manager on a independent contractor basis. We get down to doing that. The Board had approved that at a special meeting, and then all of a sudden, we can’t do it.”
Smith said that the manager they attempted to hire, Frank English, is encouraged to reapply for the changed position.
“From the Department of Labor, if Frank would be doing this for another fairground, then they would consider him independent and it would all be fine, but because Frank doesn’t work for an adjacent fairground, or any other fairground quite frankly, then the Department of Labor views him more as an employee and less as an independent contractor.”
Smith says that despite the problems with hiring a manager, all of the acts and entertainment for this year’s fair have been set.
