EPHRATA - Grant County canceled the Spring Fair and Home Show, after struggling with attendance and a lack of vendors.

The commissioners and Fair Advisory Committee made the decision to end the show, usually held in April, to put more resources into the Grant County Fair.

Admission to the event was free, so most of the money from the event came from vendors and Davis Shows, which provides the carnival rides and games, said John Eschenbacher, the committee chair.

"It's just not very feasible to put on the Spring Fair," Commissioner Cindy Carter said. "We thought we would (pull) the money that we lose and put it to good use at the fair."

Carter doesn't recall the spring fair making money since she joined the commissioners, she said.

"We still had a hard time getting vendors out to rent space," she said. "It was not from a lack of trying."

The county tried to boost attendance last year by pushing the spring fair back to the end of April, and did see some improvement, but not enough to justify keeping the fair, Carter and Eschenbacher said.

"We were finding it harder and harder to get the home show vendors to come," Eschenbacher said. "Even though the attendance was up we didn't see a lot more people get involved."

The committee and commissioners haven't decided how the money from the spring fair will be spent, but Eschenbacher said it could possibly go to entertainment or paying money to exhibitors who win ribbons. He pointed out possible hits to state funding for fairs, saying the money could be used to augment the money which was lost.

"It's obviously not as simple as dollar one to dollar two," Eschenbacher said. "We think it was the right decision. If we find out down the road that people miss the spring fair, we can sure look at it again. We didn't see that it was doing what it was originally intended to."

Carter echoed Eschenbacher.

"It could be just until the economy picks back up again," she said. "If the people of Grant County want the spring fair back, we'll bring the spring fair back."