Raining on the Country Fair Parade
By Kathy Fairbanks and Jim Evans

Bass drums pounding out a beat and beauty queens waving to crowds will give way to a shotgun-style Country Fair Days parade Aug. 3 of antique tractors inching their way through traffic down Main Street.

For the second year, the Ramona Country Fair will be without an official parade. Instead, resident and Ramona Parade Committee Chairman Steve Stipp will round up his buddies and fellow members of the local Antique Tractor Association for an impromptu ride down Main Street at 10 a.m.

"The parade is important to this town. I don't want to see it die," Stipp said of his modest efforts to organize a parade that typically ushers in the Country Fair.

What About the Bands, the Floats, the Boy Scouts?

Not this year.

Stipp and his committee, after several months of trying to plan a parade, ran into some tough times as they struggled with organizing volunteers, obtaining permits and dealing with time constraints.

Caltrans permit writer Jake Martinez said obtaining a permit to close Route 67 probably would require about 60 days advanced notice. Written approval from all the businesses that would be affected along Main Street would have been one requirement in the process.

"There's a lot of homework that needs to be done to approve a permit," he explained.

Martinez explained that costs associated with the permit process could exceed $2,000, which would need to cover traffic control personnel and other fees, which vary according to the size of an event.

Ramona is in a tough situation, Martinez said, because organizers have to obtain permits from both the county to close the side streets as well as Caltrans to divert traffic around Route 67.

San Diego County special events Director Bob Goralka said that the county does not charge for permits, but does require certified traffic control specialists to man the closed streets.

"We provide cones, barricades, signs and other equipment to the community at no charge," said Bob Fuller, director of special events for the county.

However, the county does require that traffic control personnel be certified - a cost of about $30 per person through most local community colleges - "but once they are certified, they are certified for life," Fuller explained.

Both Caltrans and county officials agreed that members of the Senior Volunteer Patrol - all of whom have training in traffic control - might be able to perform the job.

Jeff Uran, parade traffic control chair for 25 years, said, "I've always found the officials from Caltrans and the County to be very cooperative.

"The cost of insurance, picking up and returning the equipment and materials from the county, feeding the volunteers, paying for the Highway Patrol, and other expenses add up. Unfortunately, most of the volunteers that we had certified for traffic control are no longer around, so we might have to certify new volunteers at an additional cost," he added.

What to do About the Parade Now?

Some community leaders have some suggestions.

Basically, spearheading a parade committee is a job for those with plenty of time, said Kiwanis President Bob Hailey. "It's a formable task," he added.

However, Hailey said while a leader is needed to guide and organize volunteers, putting on a community parade is a job that all of Ramona's service organizations could undertake together.

Bringing to the table the muscle of Kiwanis, Rotary, Soroptimist, the chamber and other non-profit groups could help provide the manpower needed to pull off a community parade, he explained." It could be a joint venture and it could work," Hailey said of the idea.

Rotary past President Bill Jenkin concurred. "I'm sure the groups can get together. We've done joint projects before."

"It takes many hours beginning at the beginning of the year to set it all up," said local resident Chris Anderson, parade chair for six years.

"It takes an unbelievable amount of time, but the reward is getting tears in your eyes seeing the tractors coming from every direction to line up and parade down our little town from 13th to Sixth at dawn."