City of Auburn, Chamber, fairgrounds collaborate on July 4 fireworks

The Gold Country Fairgrounds & Event Center on Monday announced a "Fourth of July Celebration" in collaboration with the city of Auburn and the Auburn Chamber of Commerce that will include a fireworks display. In an interview with the Auburn Journal in his office at the fairgrounds, Ales said he was "excited about it because it gives us an opportunity to put an olive branch together, start working together, and the collective idea is after we try this and see how it all goes forward, the hope is that all three entities can start working together and collaborate." The Chamber this year is moving its July 4 celebration from the fairgrounds to Railhead Park. Activities will include bounce houses and other activities for kids with food and shopping vendors. The celebration starts at 4 p.m. Meanwhile, the fairgrounds also plans a July 4 party at 3 p.m., including food vendors, music, a demonstration by Fast Fridays Motorcycle Speedway, kids activities, a watermelon-eating contest and more. The fairgrounds, city and Chamber are splitting the fireworks bill, which Ales said totals $13,000 plus Fire Marshal fees. Auburn City Manager Sean Rabé said the city has not been involved in this event in the past, but because there was a risk of losing it, they felt the need to be involved. "This event has been going on in the city for a long, long time. The risk of losing the event to me was untenable from the city's perspective," Rabé said. "Making sure we could hold the fireworks for the community was the most important thing for me." Ales has come under fire – notably on social media comment boards – in the wake of traditional Auburn events leaving the fairgrounds. In addition to the July 4 celebration moving to Railhead Park, the annual Mountain Mandarin Festival last week announced its move to @the Grounds in Roseville for its 31st annual event in November. Old Town Pizza also closed its location inside the fairgrounds in late December. "Ridiculous," Old Town Pizza owner Reese Browning commented in a Gold Country Fairgrounds Facebook post announcing the July 4 event. "The leadership of our Fairgrounds has to change. They can't cooperate with the community so the community moves to other places that truly believe in win-win and then the Fairgrounds doubles down and creates a competing event. Wow!" "He's bringing in concerts and quinceañeras to pay the bills," said longtime Mandarin Festival Executive Director Gary Gilligan. Gilligan said the three-day Mandarin Festival was looking at a $20,000 rate increase – which Ales disputed, saying it was a $14,000 to $16,000 – and that after basically breaking even on the 2023 festival because of a rainy Saturday, the festival team couldn't afford the hike. Gilligan told the Journal he has "played very neutral" and "not been part of the crew that's been at every meeting and looking for Don to resign because we've had a great relationship at the fairgrounds, and the fairgrounds and the staff have never done me wrong. But we can't afford a $20,000 rate increase. People think we're rich and make all this money, but it goes into scholarships. Breaking even doesn't work anymore because we're paying $20,000 more in rent." Ales said rental rates are created from a combination of recommendations and fair board approval. He said he makes recommendations for the budget each October – including parking, rental revenue, expenses, salaries, rental rates – which go to the board for review, and the budget is approved in December. Ales pointed to inflation as a cause, "But it's also the cost of doing business has gone up," he said, noting the cost of the annual demolition derby has climbed from $18,000 to $42,000-$47,000. "We're all seeing it," he said. "Construction has gone crazy. It's very hard to do anything under a quarter of a million, and that's a lot of money." Ales said 14 projects have been completed since his fairgrounds tenure began in January 2017, pointing to work on the main and Walker stages, a new ceiling and roof on the Placer building, men's and women's bathrooms and a new roof on the Mother Lode building." He expressed pride that Gold Country is among 40 percent of the fairgrounds that are self-sustaining. "That's a testament to the community, to the staff, to the board, to the changes we've made, and I don't think we celebrate that enough," Ales said. Ales said the fairgrounds can now be rented from Monday through Thursday "at a significant savings." He said there are rates for "high-impact events" that don't require using every building on the grounds. He said use of McCann Stadium was taken out because "no one really uses it except Fast Fridays." Ales also noted the fairgrounds rented a barn for a monthly rate instead of a daily rate to a group running a haunted house last Halloween. Gilligan said all the fairgrounds has done is split up the grounds "in small chunks," and, "When you start adding up nickel-and-dime things, it was well over $50,000." "I think he could have done better with a community event that has been there so long," Gilligan said. "It's crazy so we just had to make that decision (to move). Maybe Don will learn from it." To improve communications with the fairgrounds, Rabé said they are in the process of forming regular meetings between Ales, fairgrounds board directors, the mayor and city council members and Rabé several times a year. "My perspective is fairgrounds needs to be successful for the city to be successful and the chamber needs to be successful for the city to be successful so making sure we are working together is important," Rabé said. Said Ales, "The three of us … if we can figure out a way to pull our resources together, then I think we can beat back some of this concern people have. But we can't get there if we're yelling at each other. The disconnect. … Let's be honest, people don't love me right now, so that's OK. That's part of my job." Auburn Journal reporters Traci Newell and Stacey Adams contributed to this report.