Go to the Home page Go to the Fair page Check out our Calendar of Events Go to our Facilities Rental page Get all our Contact information Go to our Links page

Faces of the Fair
 
RETURN TO PREVIOUS PAGE
Press Archive: 6/25/2002
 
Lyle Davis
Meet Lyle Davis
By Diane Booth Conway
 
   Fairgoers see him everywhere, wearing a wide brimmed hat and armed with a walkie-talkie. Lyle Davis spends much of the Merced County Fair behind the wheel of a golf cart, tending to situations from one end of the fairgrounds to the other.
   Charged with resolving some of the predicaments that pop up at the fair, it pays to have someone like Davis around – he’s part counselor and part cop. Davis has been a fixture at the Merced County Fair for almost 20 years.
   "Sometimes I’m a goodwill ambassador," he said. "My job is to make sure people get what they want at the fair."
Growing up in Planada, his earliest memory of the Merced fair is "having a corn dog and big Pepsi and then going on a ride and throwing up."
   His first job at the fair was as bartender in the Director’s Lounge, a job he performed during two fairs. Then he was tapped to serve as Commerce Building Superintendent for four years. He did such a good job handling those responsibilities, his role was expanded to monitor fairgrounds security as well as alcohol sales. He also is the liaison with the carnival, monitoring concessions and troubleshooting in those areas.
   "I really get along well with 99 percent of the commercial people and vendors," Davis said. Although his official title is "Concessions Manager," his title should be special assistant to the CEO and Fair Manager, Cheryl Davidson.
   "The responsibilities and problems during a six-day fair can really vary. You never know what will come up next," Davis said. "The big area is to resolve disputes between the public and vendors," he said. "It’s just endless, that’s why it’s such a good job."
"It's the huge adrenaline rush,
the non-stop go, go go..."

   One minute Davis might intervene to settle a customer’s dissatisfaction with his food purchase, then turn around to check out a report of a minor trying to hang out at one of the beer booths. In between calls, he might attend to recharging a dead golf cart battery.
   "I have to smooth things over between the vendors and the public," he said. There was the time he was summoned to sort out an incident that arose when a child was told by a ride operator that his weight exceeded the limit for the attraction. "The kid was crying so I gave him a stuffed animal to make him feel better."
   He also remembers when the situation called for him to be a "stand-in gypsy" for a fortune teller while the entertainer changed into an outfit that was less revealing.
   Why would anyone want to put in such long, grueling days in the summer heat?
   "It’s just so much fun," he said, flashing his trademark toothy grin. "Cheryl (Davidson) gives us a lot of latitude to work. We know each other very well and can communicate to each other real well," he said of his long-standing relationship with the CEO and Fair Manager.
   "It’s a great crew to work with," he said of the fair staff. But he confessed that’s not the only attraction to coming back to the fair each July. "It’s the huge adrenaline rush, the non-stop go, go, go for six days, working from early in the morning until late at night. There’s always something to do and it’s an emotional roller coaster.
   "We’ve got a great staff and you can go from hysterical laughter to tears in an hour," Davis said, adding, "The staff we have really makes it fun."
   When something needs to get done or there’s a problem, the staff always remembers teamwork, he said. "You might find Cheryl with a plunger fixing a plugged toilet or someone else moving chairs or answering the phone," he said. "We’re not territorial about our jobs," he said. "We certainly aren’t without egos, but we do what needs to get done."
continued next column
 

    One of the secrets to the Merced Fair’s success is that every job is filled by someone who is ideally suited to that position, he said. "Cheryl’s got good people doing what they know how to do."
   Davis doesn’t mind putting in long hours and working hard because he’s proud of the Merced County Fair. All it takes is a little compliment from a fairgoer and he’s good for another 12 hours. He said, "It’s nice to have someone say ‘Gosh it’s a nice fair,’ or ‘It’s such a clean fair.’"
   There are lots of things done to enhance the fairgoers’ experience that really make a difference in their visit, such as installing a lift for wheelchairs at the Grandstand. "It sounds kind of hokey, but it’s those kinds of things that make this a great fair."
   With numerous security and safety measures in place at the fair, he said, "We’ve never had any really serious incidents or accidents."
   Not only is the fair a safe place to be, Davis said, "The fairgrounds are clean and beautifully cared for. You don’t see that at most fairs." And he said the quality of the displays also is better than at most fairs. "We get a lot of compliments. I can’t think of a fairgrounds that’s comparable to ours – that’s really pleasing to the eye."
   Over the years he’s seen the steady rise in quality and quantity of the entertainment offered at the fair. "The entertainment acts just keep getting bigger and better and the carnival has more "iron" as they say in the trade, meaning more and better rides."
   During the school year, Davis works as a counselor in Merced College’s Vocational Division, specializing in Allied Health and Public Safety. His job is to help guide students in their career choices in those areas. "If someone wants to be a nurse, but can’t pass chemistry, I try to work with them to find the career path that’s right for them."
   For the past three years, he also has served as a student/faculty mediator at the college.
   Before joining the college’s staff 19 years ago, he worked as an investigator in the Merced County District Attorney’s Office for 11 years and he also served for four years as a deputy probation officer in the Merced County Probation Department.
   Davis grew up in Planada, the youngest of Glen and Dorothy Davis’ ten children. His father, Glen, worked for the Merced County Public Works Department’s traffic division for 30 years and his mother, Dorothy, was "a hardworking housewife."
   After graduating from Le Grand High School, Lyle Davis attended Merced College when the campus was temporarily located at the Merced County Fairgrounds. He was in the new school’s first graduating class in 1963. Davis has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in criminology from California State University, Fresno and a master’s degree in educational counseling from the University of San Francisco. He returned to Merced County in 1969 and lives in Merced.
   He and his wife, Betty, who works at Merced High School as a data inputter, have been married 32 years and have a daughter, Amy, who is a correctional officer in Austin, Texas.
   Davis’ community activities include serving on the Merced City Planning Commission and he also was chairman of the Merced City Personnel Board. He was appointed to serve on the Los Banos Spring Fair Board, where he was director and past president for 7 _ years before resigning in 2001.
   He is vice chairman of the Central California Women’s Facility and Valley State Prison’s Advisory Board. He also is a member of the California District Attorney’s Investigators Association and the American Polygraph Association.
   As everyone who works behind-the-scenes at the fair knows, there’s a lot that goes into putting on the event that most people don’t even know about. "Sometimes it just amazes me that this thing comes together," he said. "People ask me ‘How do you do it every year?’ and ‘I say, it’s great fun. If it weren’t fun," he said, "I wouldn’t do it."
Go to Faces of the Fair index of stories
Return to previous page Return to previous page
Merced County Fair logo
Go to the Site Map page
HOME | THE FAIR | CALENDAR OF EVENTS | FACILITIES RENTAL
CONTACT INFO | LINKS | DIRECTORS | SPONSORS | READ ABOUT IT
FACES OF THE FAIR | FAIR HISTORY | SITE MAP

Fair eMail: info@MercedCountyFair.com

Copyright © 2006 Merced County Fair. All Rights Reserved
Site design by www.ProDesignWorks.com