One of the final drafts of a proposal plan for the Island County Fairgrounds includes a few options for capital projects and financing, and should be ready for public scrutiny soon.

Consultant Marty Matthews was contracted by the Port of South Whidbey to come up with ideas of what can be done to make the county-owned property profitable. He presented the final draft document briefly to the port commissioners during a special workshop Thursday.

Echoing previous statements under different champions of the property’s reinvigoration, Matthews said “The fairgrounds is not self-supporting.”

Finding funding for renovations and new buildings, a manager to lead the fundraising and daily operations, and marketing are the major tasks ahead for the port, Matthews said.

He proposed five options which ranged from as-is to “aggressive” approaches.

With the as-is strategy, the property would remain unchanged and without improvements or a strategic/capital plan. But as the property and buildings currently exist, it struggles and sometimes fails to pay for its own basic maintenance and operations.

An aggressive approach would be frontloaded with investment and infrastructure improvements over a 10-year period. In this scenario, Matthews projected that it would see profit about five years in. He admitted, however, that as the fairgrounds are improved, the expense of operating and maintaining will too.

The port is under contract with Island County to operate the fairgrounds. Since taking over, the port has leased some of the buildings to businesses and tried to increase use of its campground/RV parking lot. The port is hoping to receive public input on the plan over the next few months before resuming negotiations with the county over the property’s future.