RAMA files for immediate injunctive relief to thwart city's demonetization attempts

An overview of the Granite State Fair from last year; left a graphic showing how nonfair revenue dropped off in 2021 (photo/Granite State Fair Facebook; graphic from RAMA.motion filed earlier this month)

DOVER - A Strafford Superior Court Judge will be scheduling a Declaratory Judgment in the next two weeks that will determine whether it will allow the Rochester Agricultural and Mechanical Association to schedule non-Granite State Fair events necessary to maintain the association's solvency, an attorney representing RAMA said on Thursday.
Attorney Marcia Brown of Brown Law of Concord, said she was hoping a decision could have been made during a Wednesday hearing in Strafford Superior Court, but City of Rochester Attorney Terence O'Rourke said he was unprepared to move forward since he had not had a chance to review the request for a preliminary injunction, Brown told The Rochester Voice.
RAMA, which since 1879 has put on the former Rochester Fair (now Granite State Fair), has been at loggerheads with the city of Rochester since 2018, when they made it abundantly clear they wanted to purchase the Rochester Fairgrounds' 68 acres for city development.
Brown said that's when they began a practice of denying permits for non-fair events RAMA had been scheduling for decades with the city's blessing.
"Non-fair events are the lifeblood for RAMA," Brown said. "Many charities have to deviate from their principal purpose to get income from non-charity events.
The city had always been open to such events, but after 2018 began to throw more and more red tape at RAMA, effectively demonetizing their nonprofit, because the city had designs on the Rochester Fairgrounds property.
The city of Rochester earlier tried to take away RAMA's nonprofit status, which could've been the death knell for the charity, but in March of 2023 the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that they were, indeed, a charity, and restored their tax-exempt status.
In RAMA's pleading they note that while the city's contentious relationship with RAMA began in 2018, the financial screws didn't begin in earnest till 2021 when the city began the practice of permit interference, denying events that RAMA had been having for decades.
In the 10 years prior to when the city began its interference in nonfair events, RAMA earned an average of $40,300 annually. From 2022 to 2024, however, a stark contrast, with nonfair income of $0, $1,000 and $0, respectively.
Brown said an immediate injunction is necessary, because many of the nonfair events RAMA has hosted in the past come in the summer like the Phantom Gourmet BBQ & Country Music Festival.
Brown said O'Rourke intimated during Wednesday's hearing that perhaps some of those grandfathered events might be allowed this year.
The question is why this year, but not last year or the year before?
RAMA is also seeking attorneys fees and damages, but Brown said the amount of damages is yet to be determined based on the city's actions.
O'Rourke and other city officials were not immediately available for comment.