Merced County Fair exec to retire June 30

The Merced County Fair’s top executive announced Monday his plans to retire June 30, shortly after this year’s fair ends.

Tom Musser, 63, has been the fair’s chief executive officer since 2009. “The reason I applied here and came here is because I knew that this fair was important to the community,” he said.

Musser has worked in fair management for more than 40 years throughout the West Coast. He came to Merced after 15 years with Clark County Fair in Washington.

He said he believes the fair’s in a relatively good spot after a few tough years, with revenues expected to be $1.68 million this year, about $100,000 more than last year.

In 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown ended an annual $32 million allocation to fairs across the state, which was a loss of $168,000 for the Merced County Fair.

While the fair was limping along, fair-goers also were hurting. “We’d have people ask for a burger and ask for it to be cut in half, because they just didn’t have the money,” he said.

The fair’s staff and board of directors walked a delicate tightrope to cut costs without gutting the fair of its integrity, he said.

Since then, the fair has been able to attract more events year round, he said, which helps sustain it. Musser said that kind of thinking could help strengthen the fair’s future.

To that end, the fairgrounds and fair boosters broke ground on a new, 33,800-square-foot building they’ve nicknamed the “big barn.” It’s a departure from the other buildings on the fairgrounds, because the older buildings were designed only for fair use.

The multipurpose building, which is the first new construction in more three decades, is meant to attract events of all types throughout the year. “It speaks to how we look at the fairgrounds in the future,” he said.

Updating other parts of the fairgrounds, he said, will be a challenge without state funding. The site has old and deteriorated piping, asphalt and sidewalks.

In his January budget proposal, Brown called for $3.1 million to the 75 fairs in the state. The plan includes an additional one-time allocation of $7 million for deferred fairgrounds maintenance. It remains unclear if Merced County will get any of the money.

In Merced’s agriculture-heavy economy, Musser said, the fair plays the role of economic driver – a role it may not play in more urban cities.

“We need to do a better job in Sacramento of letting folks know what we do,” he said. “We’ve been doing it for a long time, but we need to do a better job there.”

High on his list of proudest accomplishments is the Merced Assembly Center Memorial, a monument erected with the help of the Japanese American Citizens League to honor Japanese Americans held at the fairgrounds during World War II.

Musser said he and his wife, Debbi, plan to return to Washington since their children and grandchild live in the Pacific Northwest.

The fair’s board will accept applications for his replacement through Aug. 31, according to the fair’s website. Teresa Burrola, the fair’s business assistant, will be the interim manager at the fair while the board looks for a top executive.

This year’s fair is June 10 to 14. For more on the fair or the job position, go to www.mercedcountyfair.com.

This story was originally published May 11, 2015 at 5:17 PM with the headline "Merced County Fair exec to retire June 30."