Times Observer file photo There will be no carnival rides at this years County Fair.

For decades, the Warren County Fair has featured carnival rides as a part of the whole package.

It looks like that tradition will have to take a year off.

The company that has provided the rides at the Midway gave the board notice when it merged with another company and expected to lose some of its schedule.

“Our company informed us that that was going to happen and that they wouldn’t be back,” Fair Board President Dale Bliss said. “That was in late December. Our Fair Board the same day started a search for a replacement.”

That search has been pretty exhaustive, but not immediately fruitful.

“Since then, and nearly every day, we’ve talked with carnival companies,” Bliss said. “These companies just didn’t have our dates available.”

The companies’ unwillingness to work the Warren County Fair into their schedules is a positive in terms of loyalty. “They didn’t want to leave fairs that they had booked in a lurch,” Bliss said.

Although there have been no offers for this year, “we’ve got five or six that we would consider viable options for us,” Bliss said.

The Fair Board will vet those vendors. “This summer we have a group of people that will be going to different fairs to see how they operate and basically go through the interview process,” Bliss said.

In the meantime, the Fair has some space to fill.

“We’ve tasked a committee to look at alternatives,” he said. “They have been asked to think outside the box” but stay within the Fair’s tradition of quality.

Whatever that committee comes up with would join the other parts of the Midway. “We do expect to have food and carnival games,” he said. “Just no rides.”

The board is excited about preparing for the rest of the Fair, to be held Aug. 9 through 13.

Losing the carnival rides “is definitely not ideal,” Bliss said. “There are worse things (for the Fair)… like not having one.”