For more than an hour Tuesday night, the Cadiz City Council and several members of the Trigg County Country Ham Festival Committee convened in special session — hoping to find solutions to budgetary issues and overall control ahead of the event’s Golden Anniversary in the community.
In the end, council members unanimously approved for the committee to convene and later bring forth a full recommendation of what a new advisory council and its commissioners would look like in a legal sense — in order to continue meeting not only the benchmarks for state approvals and clean audits, but also as continued qualifiers for state agricultural festival grants under 4-H, the Extension Office system and other similar veins.
According to City Administrative Officer Jack Lingenfelter and City Attorney Allen Wilson, this means likely having:
+ At least seven term-serving members of varying agricultural importance in the community, appointed by the mayor and approved by the council, to serve as the non-profit’s governing body;
+ While adding any number of suggested unique community leaders with valuable skill sets, to serve as liaise for the innumerable tasks necessary to bring the celebration to life.
Councilman Todd Wallace offered up the difference.
While the heart of conversation split hairs between a desire to break even while serving the community, Lingenfelter listed several concerns he’s observed in his research:
a) public funds are being directed by private action
b) the non-profit still exists without operating authority
c) the city is bearing the majority of liability
and d) there is high volunteer involvement without structure
Lingenfelter confirmed that, sometime during the 2008-09 transfer window from previous stockholders to the city, the Trigg County Country Ham Festival Committee non-profit “never dissolved,” and as such its licenses have been continually paid by the City of Cadiz budget.
An $80,000 transfer, he added, once served as the festival’s first “true city budget,” only to have that line item erased somewhere between 2010 and 2011.
Today, Lingenfelter said the “Ham Fest” line-item hovers around $40,000, while Cadiz-Trigg County Tourism Director slash Festival Committee Chair Beth Sumner noted her office typically provides $20,000 for entertainment funding, and in-house spending crests $15,000 in advertisements leading up to the October weekend.
Sumner said she has asked, repeatedly, “what a budget needs to look like.”
Sumner further noted that the Ham Festival Committee, as it is now, has always had a Cadiz City Council member in its ranks, as well as the general input of a Public Works Director or some other city employee.
As councilwoman Susan Bryant asked about entertainment pricing, former committee member and long-standing festival advocate Kerry Fowler affirmed that the 2004 entertainment budget was “more than $25,000” — before the city had control — and that spending now for musical acts is actually less than it was 20 years ago. Amber Syester, the city’s new finance director and current member of the festival committee, said sponsorships and local supports recently went “a long way” in providing anchors in recent years.
Lingenfelter also again confirmed that the city has re-upped with American Carnivals for the next 10 years, and that the city’s portion of ticket and arm band sales just goes back into the General Fund. No outside opinion was taken, and no action was legally necessary, because the Madisonville-based organization takes a cash-split after the festival, while absorbing all food sales inside the carnival, as well as a portion of ticket revenue.
Sumner, as well as News Edge Group’s Joshua Claussen, confirmed that Friday night’s entertainment has “already made a verbal agreement,” and a contract has already been delivered for signature. City council unanimously approved for officials to continue the entertainment search, as Saturday remains mostly unplanned.
Sumner also confirmed that in 2024, only $1,500 in restaurant tax was generated by the Trigg County Country Ham Festival. And therefore, it might behoove the city to move toward a higher one-time booth rental fee while waiving a food tax.
After all, the festival’s only true revenue streams are T-shirt sales, space rentals, arm bands and ticket sales.
Sumner also said she would chair the festival again in 2026, but wanted to see a “line of succession” in leadership sooner, rather than later, in order to ingratiate others to this process.
FULL AUDIO:
Main Entertainment Options (Since 1995)
1995: Mike Snider
1996: Ken Mellons
1997: David Kersh
1998: Jeff Carson
1999: Warren Brothers
2000: Clay Davidson
2001: Jett Williams (rain out)
2002: Jett Williams
2003: Wade Hayes
2004: Mike Snider
2005: Jeff Bates
2006: Shenandoah
2007: David Ball
2008: Brian White
2009: Highway 101
2010: Buddy Jewell
2011: Andy Griggs
2012: Confederate Railroad
2013: Sammy Kershaw
2014: Colin Raye
2015: James Otto/Bucky Covington
2016: Restless Heart
2017: Exile
2018: Shenandoah
2019: Darryl Worley
2020: COVID-19
2021: Jake Hoots
2022: Rubicks Groove
2023: Legacy
2024: Charlie Daniels Tribute Band
2025: Brian White
