Financial conditions are improving at Wisconsin's State Fair Park in West Allis.
A state audit shows Park officials have reduced the deficit the facility was operating under, with a cash shortfall last year of only $1.7 million. That's down from a $3.6 million deficit for the 2004-05 fiscal year.
State Fair Park Board CFO Craig Barkelar says the decline is the result of three years of working towards pulling the facility out of the red. He believes this year will mark the first time the park will have a $500,000 surplus on the books.
Barkelar says financial improvements are the result of restructuring how the facility operates, to reduce their overall costs. Those options have included turning over management of The Milwaukee Mile to a private firm and the sale of the Pettit Ice Center to a non-profit firm.
The audit does still show an overall deficit of $11.5 million. Barkelar says eliminating that will take time.
