County Fair Adds a Few Modern Flairs : Attractions: Guests will find automated scooters for the disabled, more ATMs and wide acceptance of credit cards. And then there’s the $50 catapult ride.

For more than a century, fairs have offered folks a familiar array of attractions like carousels, cotton candy, animals and musical shows.

But today’s technologically savvy public expects convenience and a thrill or two.

So, in an attempt to lure a new generation of patrons, the 102nd edition of the Orange County Fair, which opens today and continues through July 24, will offer a few new attractions that update an event that prides itself on the traditional.

Between the Ferris wheel and the children’s arena will be eight ATM’s, automated scooters for the handicapped and the elderly, and one $50 thrill ride that gladly accepts American Express.

“You have to address the needs of the people,” said Jill Lloyd, spokeswoman for the Orange County Fair. “We live in an automated, computerized world, where, if you don’t have a fax, you’re scorned.”

Public suggestions have resulted in such additions as:

* Seven more ATM posts, up from last year’s one. The Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Orange County Fair machines accept various credit cards as well as ATM cards.

* Automated scooters, $30 a day, an added service to manual wheelchairs, which cost $10 a day.

* The Ejection Seat, one of the fair’s featured new attractions, makes its debut in Orange County today.

And everywhere they accept plastic.

Since few people carry cash, fair-goers now can pay for a packet of tickets with credit cards, and most exhibitors in the Carnival of Products and the Parade of Products--buildings housing booths for everything from jewelry to footwear--will accept credit cards.

Operators of the Ejection Seat, a giant 125-foot catapult ride for $50 that operates on the same principles as bungee-cord jumping, will accept credit cards of all types.

“This is a sleeper of a ride, but as soon as you pull that handle, (there is a pressure of) 3 1/2 G’s and you’re outta there,” said John Suiter, 26, an Ejection Seat operator who says crowds have lined up at other carnivals for the thrill.

Beefed-up security and mandatory drug testing of employees also are contemporary additions.

The new security measures are aimed at preventing the kind of incidents that occurred last year, when a carnival worker fondled five children in a haunted house and eight people were injured in a roller coaster accident.

The haunted house has been removed and an additional 35 security officers have been hired for the duration of the fair, an increase from 130 last year to 165 this summer.

Still, quick thrills and high technology will always be overshadowed by the fair’s true purpose, which is to educate and remind the public of its agricultural roots, Lloyd said.

“In Orange County, there is less agriculture to see, and you tend to forget about it,” said Lloyd.

Schoolchildren who visit Centennial Farm, a one-acre miniature farm and permanent fixture at the fairgrounds, learn to associate eggs and milk with chickens and cows, not with grocery stores, said Lloyd, who believes that many children today lack the basic knowledge of nature.

“It’s to remind people that (farming) really does go on,” Lloyd said. “You may not see (the farmers), but they exist.”

This year’s theme, “Saddle Up For Fun,” a salute to horses and hay, is geared to bring people back to the basics, which often get lost in a sea of glitzy new inventions, Lloyd said.

There will be a cattle drive on Fairview Avenue here July 15 when more than 100 participants will herd 250 cattle. Also, every building on the fairgrounds will honor different horses, with the horse penned near the building for children to see and pet, Lloyd said.

And with luck, the ATM machines will blend in among the hay stacks and the chuck wagon.