Don't they get enough money??

Water fight breaks out at Western Idaho Fair

10:27 AM MDT on Thursday, August 27, 2009



No free water? GARDEN CITY -- It's a water fight at the Western Idaho Fair -- but not the kind you might be thinking of.

For nearly a decade John McClintick been selling water bottles and offering unlimited free refills, but this year the fair says he's violating his contract.

Water is certainly a key ingredient in gong to the fair -- it's important to stay hydrated in these hot, summer temperatures.

And for eight years, McClintick thought he was offering a service of sorts.

For a couple bucks, he'd sell you a water bottle and then promote his water treatment system by filling those bottles for free -- as many times as you wanted.

But two days into this year's fair organizers told him, without a food and beverage contract, he was breaking the rules. They said they'd simply never noticed until now.

"The first thing they said was, 'you can't fill water bottles anymore.' And I said, 'my God, I've been doing this eight years.' And then they implied or said directly that they didn't know I was doing that. They didn't know I was selling water bottles and refilling them." said McClintick.

"We have commercial vendor contracts and we have food and beverage contracts. Food and beverage contracts, when they sell water I get a percentage of it or the fair gets a percentage of it," said Bob Batista, Western Idaho Fair.

The bottom line says the fair is that McClintick's cutting into the bottom line.

Batista says the fair doesn't get a cut of the free water, unlike the bottled water being purchased from food vendors -- bottles ranging in price from $2 to $3.

"We don't come out here trying to be greedy, we don't come out here to put the hammer down on him, obviously we're trying to make it so that each person gets a fair shake at making some money, which is what they're here for," said Batista.

Batista says McClintick could still sell his bottles, but not allow them to be filled at his filtration station. He also say McClintick can give out free water.

McClintick says he's tried, but hasn't been able to get a meeting with Batista to help clear up that confusion.

Meanwhile, he's just stopped selling his bottles and is simply offering free water in paper cups.

To give you an idea how popular his bottles were, McClintock sold 550 on Saturday before the fair told him to stop.

Food and beverage is a major money maker at the fair, on average bringing in $1.2 million a year.
Share this storyPrint this story Add RSS Feeds Email this story Advertisement




So, next thing you know you will be putting quarters into the water fountain.