Kudos to Matt Mulcahy of CNY Central for a report broadcast on Thursday featuring a tour of changes at the Fairgrounds with commentary from Troy Waffner. 
The acting director showed off the stately new main gate, where he said 60 percent of Fair attendees enter.
Waffner also gave viewers a look at the 12 acres of newly paved blacktop that will serve as the launching pad for midway madness come Aug. 25.
At one end of the midway, near the main buildings, a grassy area will be used to stage the kiddieland rides, 
a great idea that means that excited toddlers who trip won’t skin their knees. Both areas are shown in photos taken during Syracuse Nationals.
State Fair Hound tried unsuccessfully to find the video from Mulcahy’s report on the CNY Central website, but maybe it will turn up in coming days. It’s certainly worth a look.
Ty Botsford
This year after many years of being absent, I will return to the Great New York State Fair.
Living in Florida now reduces the visits, but as I look ahead to next month, I look back to the great days as the Joie Chitwood Thrill Show electrified the grandstand patrons, the roar of the motorcycles in Wall of Death, Fried Dough 3 feet long from the purple a frame, Tanya Tucker and many other stars dazzle viewers in Miller Court and, of course, the Labor Day stock car race as I stood high atop a camper and cheered on Dick “Toby” Tobias and Will Cagle. Then there was the year my very last dime on Labor Day landed in the center of the red circle, which netted me “choice of the large stuffed toys.
We always arrived very early (6am or earlier) to start the fun filled day and left when the midway closed.
With the grandstand gone, the track gone, the main entrance redone, Chitwood now only a legend and others that are now and will remain some of the fondest memories of the Great New York State Fair.