Does the Chautauqua County Fair take a chance and open in 2021? That’s the question weighing on its board of directors’ minds at the moment.

“We’re kind of in a hold pattern, basically it’s all in the governor’s (Andrew Cuomo) hands,” said Dave Wilson, president of the county Fair Board. “We’re waiting for the governor to say something. A while back when they came out with guidelines for outdoor amusements, everybody thought that meant the fair. That’s wrong because then the governor came out and said, ‘No that’s not what’s going on with fairs and we will issue the guidelines in the future.’ ”

Wilson stated that while that’s all well and good with the State Fair — which happens closer to Labor Day– it’s not helping smaller county fairs that are held earlier in the summer.

If the governor says fairs can only open with 30% capacity, what does that entail for them? Is it 30% of people that have come through the gates or is it 30% of people there because the fair has to take into account the 4-H, vendors and personnel and that takes up all of the 30%.

“If we open up the fair with whatever we have to do and people come in and people don’t understand what it takes to run a fair they’re going to say, ‘Well this is a stupid fair. There’s nothing here. We’re not going to come back here.’ Then they’re going to beat you up over social media,” Wilson added. “Do we roll the dice? It’s our venue so theoretically the Health Department could come in and say, ‘You’re closed. Shut the gates.’ After all the money that we spent. Do I take that chance?”

Currently the discussion has been pushed back until May 3 when the board will have to make a decisive call.