Sunday, February 11, 2007

Splashy Fair Park revamp in the works

By Teresa Gubbins

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Midway! Space needle! Tram! Speedboat ride!

Fair Park is up for a comprehensive remake, designed to make the area a summer-long tourist attraction.

Though most of the plans are still in the dreamer phase, some have already been initiated, says the DMN, including an 1,800-foot-long tram that will lift visitors 73 feet over the midway, with completion slated in time for this year's State Fair of Texas on Sept. 28.

Rachelle Bowden

Other plans include a speedboat "thrill ride" and a 450-foot observation tower near the east end of the Cotton Bowl.

There's nothing so wonderful as the sky-high boosterism you get on a project in its early planning phase. To wit:

"When you look at world's fairs, most of them had some sort of tram system and some kind of space needle," said State Fair president Errol McKoy. "This will give us a world's fair look. This will raise us above the level of a state fair."

State Fair board chairman George Shafer acknowledged that executive committee members may have "questions" about how soon the tower can be built -- but worry not.

"We've got a lot on our plates right now," he said. "But the tower's not an 'if' question, it's a 'when' question."

The speedboat ride is proposed to be complete in 2009. Meanwhile, there's plans to convert the midway into "a mini-theme park." And coffee tables to be dusted, and brownies to be baked.

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