Lawmakers postponed action Thursday on a regulation that some demolition derby operators say may put them out of business. Instead, lawmakers said they hoped negotiations would result in a compromise and that they would review the situation in January.
County fair and secretary of state officials held a roundtable discussion with lawmakers Thursday to discuss the regulatory conflict that may keep some demolition derbies from taking place this summer.
A Vermont Racing Commission rule requires that spectators cannot come within 30 feet of a demolition derby ring. Despite the rule having been on the books since the 1990s, it is just now being enforced. That’s because racing rules were previously enforced by inconsistent regulators outsourced by the Secretary of State’s Office, said Chris Winter, deputy secretary of state. Now, new in-house regulators are enforcing the 30-foot provision, causing some demolition derby planners to see their permits denied.
The discussion was held in the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules. Lawmakers expressed hope negotiations through the secretary of state’s office and fair officials could result in a compromise.
Jackie Folsom, a lobbyist for the Vermont Fairs and Field Days Association, told lawmakers that out of the seven fairs within her association, three of them do not currently meet the 30-foot regulation: the Vermont State Fair in Rutland, the Orleans County Fair and the Caledonia County Fair.
Folsom said it would cost all three fairs tens of thousands of dollars to either reconstruct their demolition derby arenas or cancel the events altogether.
Last summer, Folsom said Vermont State Fair demolition derby organizers were visited by inspectors and told just hours before the event that they were out of compliance with the 30-foot provision. Officials did their best to move barriers as far out as they could, Folsom said, but the inspectors also required that the first two rows of already-sold seating in the grandstand be emptied.
“This caused a financial loss of approximately $1,000 as well as the challenge of dealing with angry fairgoers who had purchased separate tickets for the grandstand event,” Folsom said.
Jason Sicard, president of the Orleans County Fair Association, said that lawmakers should act urgently to either amend or discard the regulation because fairs have already entered into contracts with demolition derby entertainers. If a solution is not found before the events take place this summer, he said fairs will have to break these contracts and lose money.
Winters said his office does not want to shut down demolition derby events. But he cautioned lawmakers from acting too quickly and axing the regulation.
At the time the 30-foot regulation was put in place, Winters said it was believed by regulators that this was a reasonable distance to ensure public safety. Despite objections from fair officials that demolition derby drivers typically don’t exceed more than 10 mph, and that no spectator injuries in Vermont have been recorded during demolition derbies in the last decade, Winters said there may be concerns they don’t have the expertise to identify.
He said more evidence needs to be gathered before the regulation is formally amended or cut.
“We are not physicists, we are not engineers,” Winters said. “We don’t know whether that 30 feet is a reasonable distance.”
Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, at first wanted the committee to object to the rule, but eventually agreed to revisit the regulation after more information is gathered. He said a solution needs to be found quickly in order to keep fairs from losing money. But he’s confident this can be resolved before the summer.
“One of the dangers of the legislative process,” Benning said, “is that this can get mired in that soup of who has control and who wants to have some say in this process.”
