Why you won’t see a Benton, Franklin Democrat booth at the fairgrounds this week

For the past seventeen months, our community has been ravaged by the Covid-19 Pandemic. Even as we write this, our hospitals are again facing a historic strain on their ability to provide care to our community. Doctors, nurses, and hospital staff are exhausted by the new wave of illness.

Local businesses were just beginning to recover when the latest wave of illness hit the community. Some are having to close due to workers being sick with Covid-19. The City of Richland just reinstated its mask and social distancing rules in city buildings. After much thought and consideration, we have chosen to reluctantly withdraw our local party organizations’ participation from the 2021 Benton-Franklin County Fair and Rodeo.

We do not make this decision lightly. The Benton-Franklin Fair is one of the best “come together” events of the summer in the Tri-Cities. Vendors, livestock, photography displays, family fun, farm goods, rides, GREAT FOOD!, and headliner entertainment. It is always an extraordinary annual opportunity to highlight everything that is right with the Tri-Cities area. It’s a great time to discuss issues one-on-one with the public. We will miss that exchange of ideas.

However, we feel we have an obligation to the health and welfare of the entire community. We trust the organizers of the fair; we believe firmly that they are doing everything in their power to promote safety and fun at the fairgrounds this year. However, with the recent rise of the delta variant of Covid-19 and growing infection rates in both counties, we cannot in good faith or conscience ask our members to volunteer to staff a booth in an environment that poses extraordinary safety risks to them and the fair-going community at large.

We did enter a float in the Fair Parade on Saturday, an outdoor, socially distanced event. We felt comfortable supporting such an outdoor activity.

Though we will not have a booth at the fair this year, we look forward to participating in future years. We wish nothing but the best for all those attending and working at the fair this year. In the meantime, we stand in full solidarity with the Benton-Franklin Health District and urge everyone to follow its advice and decisions regarding masks and vaccinations. Please, mask up, maintain social distancing, and vaccinate.

Our community faces an unprecedented challenge in the form of this pandemic as do most communities across the country. It will only be controlled with the cooperation of all citizens. We all need to pull together. With all of us working together we can and will get through this.

This story was originally published August 23, 2021 at 4:00 AM.