Project Includes New State-of-the-Art Greenhouse to Promote New York Agriculture
New Barns, Concession Stand To Be Built To Continue Upgrades of the State’s Largest Festival
Groundbreaking Comes at the Start of the 2022 Great New York State Fair, Marking the Fair’s Full Return
Highlights Partnerships To Drive Agricultural and Economic Development at County Fairs Across the State
National 4-H Council Honors Governor Hochul with 4-H Distinguished Alumni Medallion
Governor Hochul: “The Fair is back, and I’m so excited to be here I was Governor as of a year ago today, and I was here just a couple days later. And wow, what a difference a year makes. And the fact that we’re here is just extraordinary, you know, that the comeback story of New York is replicated in how this Fair has come back as well. And I’m really, really proud of that. And we want to welcome everyone to what is a 13-day extravaganza.”
Hochul: “We’re here to welcome what will be over a million visitors People come from all over the country, and we get a chance to showcase our state story and celebrate our agriculture, the dairy products and the livestock and everything else that we just talk about. And you already covered the amazing food and the entertainment. There’s nothing like this.”
Last week at the opening of the NYS Fair. Governor Kathy Hochul announced the beginning of the fourth phase of improvements at the New York State Fairgrounds, a $34.7 million project to improve agricultural facilities at the Fairgrounds in Syracuse. Governor Hochul cut the ribbon at a ceremony celebrating the opening and full return of the 2022 Great New York State Fair. The project, already underway and to be completed in 2025, is highlighted by a 1.5-acre greenhouse, which will be located near the Exposition Center. The project also includes a new show space for goats, a new sheep barn and wool center, a new horse barn, a new concession stand, streetscape improvements to Restaurant Row, the Fair’s street of permanent concession buildings, and various infrastructure improvements.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks is available below:
Thank you. Well, Commissioner, I feel the same about you. You have been a tireless leader, a champion for an industry that people don’t always associate with New York. If you don’t live in New York, you think of Manhattan. And we know there’s so much more, and the way you celebrate and honor our farmers and the challenges they face and how we try to work through them together. I applaud you for being such an important part of our administration. Let’s give another round applause to Commissioner Ball.
I also want to recognize Jennifer Sirangelo, the National President and CEO of the 4-H Council and all the 4-Hers who are here today. Anybody from 4-H here today? Let’s give a shoutout. You’ll hear a little bit more about that, but – 4-H and I’m a 4-H member. Once a 4-H member, always a 4-H member. Stands for four values of heart and head and hands and health. And I’ve always loved the pledge to what that all means in our lives. So, I want to thank her for journeying here. She’s not from here originally, but she spent time at Syracuse University. So, you’re one of us. So, there you go.
Many, many state leaders, I want to thank you. I know you’re recognized, but also our Mayor, Ben Walsh is here. I want to thank the Mayor for joining us. Good to see you, Mayor. And our County Executive Ryan McMahon. And I have so many cabinet members here. Why don’t we just have our next meeting right now? By the way, who’s running the State? You are all just in my heart. I’m so proud of every one of you. You all have taken on the challenge of governing during some challenging times, and it is a challenge, but also with the heart and your heads and your hands and the conviction of what public service really means. So, let’s give a huge applause to every member of my cabinet. They’re all right over here. Thank you.
And to our local officials again, I mentioned our state partners, John Mannion is here as well as, Bill Magnarelli, Assemblymember. Rachel May joined us. Pamela Hunter, Al Stirpe. I thank them and I look forward to a really robust legislative session starting in January. And I do appreciate all you do during session, but certainly the time you spend in your districts, which is really the most important time. And I thank you for that.
So, here we are making the Fair happen again. Also, there are members of the Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The Dean is here. We actually – where’s the Dean? Dean Ben Houlton, great to see you again. Dean Houlton, Christopher Watkins and also, Julie Suarez, I want to thank them for here.
So, this is what we wait all year for, isn’t it? The Fair is back and I’m so excited to be here. After two years, shut down in 2020. Last year I was here. So I think it was one of the most – the first probably real official act I did. I was Governor as of a year ago today and I was here just a couple days later. And wow, what a difference a year makes. And the fact that we’re here is just extraordinary, you know, that the comeback story of New York is replicated in how this Fair has come back as well. And I’m really, really proud of that. And we want to welcome everyone to what is a 13-day extravaganza. There were little issues about the timing before, but we’re here focused on making sure this is strong. We also support our other fairs throughout the state. We want to have them strong and healthy. So, thank you, Commissioner Ball for making that happen as well.
And Sean Hennessey. Where’s Sean? The man of the hour, the man of the hour, who stepped up and just has been leading with, again, the same commitment to public service that we all believe in. And you’ve been doing an incredible job. I’m getting a lot of reports on you because I’m asking every day, “How’s he doing? How’s he doing? How’s he doing?” And it’s been great.
So, we’re here to welcome what will be over a million visitors – even more. The weather looks spectacular. People come from all over the country and we get a chance to showcase our state story and celebrate our agriculture, the dairy products and the livestock and everything else that we just talk about. And you already covered the amazing food and the entertainment. There’s nothing like this. There’s nothing like this. And any other state, bring it on. You can’t touch the New York State Fair. So, I am really proud of be the Governor and I’m going to be here very shortly. I’m just making sure – do they still have that fried pumpkin pie here? Can we find out? You got some? Okay because that was why I came actually. You know, the maple cotton candy. You know how I cherish this industry. I eat everything maple. And there’s a little discussion, I had to deal with a little controversy here. I got asked during the debate, what kind of bagels I like. I said, you know, I like sweetness. I like everything sweet. So, I have a cinnamon raisin bagel and I’d have cream cheese with maple in it. And that was like blasphemy in New York City. Like, what are you talking about? Who are you? That person’s really our governor, really? It almost disqualified me, but I said, I know this maple industry, they have maple beer, they have maple wine, they have cotton. There’s not a single food that we don’t have maple syrup in in Upstate, and I’m going to keep supporting my maple syrup industry, my maple industry. That is my loyalty to my products here in the State of New York. So, we’re real excited to hear this.
This Fair was also – I’ve always gone to fairs. I came to Syracuse here, so I came as a student, but also, I spent days at the Erie County Fair and I have to talk about this a little bit because that’s why we’re talking about 4-H today. When you think about leadership skills and how you learned them, I learned a lot about what I needed to do as a young 4-Her. I was 10 years old and all of us had to do something. We’re actually learning how to sew aprons and fun things like that a long time ago. But also, we had to demonstrate something at the Fair. So, this is my first public speaking, I was 10 years old, very intimidated, had an audience. This looks a little bigger. I think it was just my mom, maybe, out there. I was still nervous. And so, I had to demonstrate how to make some healthy food, and this is crazy. But to this day, I had to make a poster, I still remember the ingredients for banana orange frosted. I was ahead of my time with smoothies, half a banana, half a cup of orange juice, half a cup of sherbet, and milk and you blend it all together and it’s a very nutritious drink. That’s exactly what I said. And I won the award for just getting up and talking about it.
So, ever since then, you know, it’s been a path toward public speaking, building confidence, building confidence. And those are the skills that a lot of young people don’t have if they’re not in a program like that. So that’s why I wanted to give a special shout out to the influence that 4-H – and I brag about this all over the state, especially when I go to farms. I mean, this really made a difference in my life, and I cherish the work that you’re still doing.
So, you know why I care about this Fair. We’re going to keep investing in it, the investments up until this year have been extraordinary, but I’m always wanted to raise the bar. Is there anything else we need to be doing? And that’s exactly why we put almost $35 million in our recently passed budget to make sure we can continue improving the Fairgrounds. So, let’s make it even better. Let’s make it even better. Let me show you some of our ideas.
You can’t be a really good fair without a first-rate goat pavilion. I just want to put that out there, okay? So, this time next year, we’re going to have 2,500 square feet of new show space, but also powered by solar energy. How much fun is that going to be? So that’s going to be great. Goat pavilion, a new concessions building, a permanent home for New Yorkers to get all their favorite treats. I’m looking forward to that as well. That’s going to be nice. Improvements to restaurant row streetscape, lighting and landscape, seating and vendor spaces. That might take a little longer, and I mean, not next summer, like the other ones, but this is how we’re going to improve our agriculture center.
And you have to have a brand new wool center. 2,500 square feet, a new sheep barn, three new horse barns, show ring, and a seating area. So, these are the investments we’re going to make. You’ll see a difference next summer.
As we work to green the Fair – green the Fair, get it? We have a new state-of-the-art greenhouse, and now it’s going to be an education center. We’re going to have community resources, and this will help us focus on the latest high-tech initiatives to make sure that our industry also is green – it already is. New York is growing. New York is growing. Our Fair is growing. Our confidence in our state continues to grow and we’re going to continue educating and entertaining all at the same time.
So, I’m really proud of what we do here, and I just want to say, as I said before, we are back. This is an extraordinary part of our identity as a state. I want everybody to talk about it in other parts of our state, and we’re going to continue focusing on that. And we have some new exhibits this year that I want to talk about briefly.
The New York State Energy and Environmental Experience, which is highlighting how we use renewable energy and enhancing our lives and helping the environment. From wind turbines, electric vehicles, to smart homes, let’s let people see what the future looks like. That’s why you come to fairs. I think there’s a great opportunity here to just educate people as to what the great possibilities are. The Skilled Trades and Manufacturing Exhibit, I’ve been there. Let’s talk about all the jobs for building and people using their hands and their minds, and just, you’re learning the skills that are going to help build back. You’ve got some very exciting projects, in Upstate in particular.
And of course, the butter sculpture. And, I saw the pictures, I haven’t seen in person yet. I have to go witness this extravaganza, but this is the 50th anniversary of the passage of Title IX. We talk about laws that have radically changed people’s lives, the lives of young women who have an opportunity to receive an education on a scholarship because they have a passion for a sport as well. And before 50 years ago, I’ll admit that’s when I was growing up, there was not a lot of interest in women’s sports. I basically didn’t have any, I just worked at a pizzeria after school. There were not opportunities. And so, there’s that loss of all the talents and skills you build being by being part of a team and pushing yourself to the limits and dealing with wins and losses, and all those skills are taught through sportsmanship. That was not there up until 50 years ago. So, we celebrate that this year and what better way to celebrate something important than to make a butter sculpture out of it?
So, I’m really excited. I’d like to call up Jennifer right now and have her say a few words, but again, thank you for coming here. Thank you for being part of all of us who are ambassadors to this amazing place, when we showcase all that is good about New York right here at the Great Fair here in Syracuse. Thank you, everybody.
Thank you. I’m deeply honored. I could not have imagined I’d received this, when I was that little 10-year-old at the Erie County Fair, talking about banana orange frosted. But, yeah, it is an honor. And I had a chance to look back through all the honorees through history and this is a national award. And when I saw, distinguished people like Orville Redenbacher also got this award, I thought, “This is really the big time here.” So thank you for honoring me. Thank you to the 4-Hers and you’re on a path to leadership because of the skills you’re learning, right here as a member of this. So thank you, everybody. Let’s go enjoy the Fair, and I’m heading right to the food immediately. Thank you.
