Fair board takes do-it-yourself stance

The Orange County Fair board on Thursday rejected all bids from

outside consultants to write a request for proposals for the lease of

the high-end weekend swap meet, known as the Orange County Market

Place.

Board members said the proposals submitted were inadequate, and

they instead chose to design a request themselves with the help of

legal counsel and staff members.

In February, the board approved hiring an outside consultant to

help design an equitable and impartial process for requesting bids,

since the previous process was terminated after getting mired in

controversy.

The controversy started when a bid by a subsidiary of Delaware

North was rejected on a technicality. The state Department of General

Services ultimately decided the omission was immaterial. But tension

between Delaware North and Tel Phil Enterprises, which founded the

marketplace 35 years ago, was so high that the board decided to scrap

the process and start over using outside help.

After receiving proposals from outside consultants, fair officials

discovered none of the consultants had the necessary experience with

lease agreements.

The new process will include public review and comment on the

request before it is approved by the board. Public comment is

tentatively scheduled for the August board meeting.