Public hearing Thursday in Tamworth on repeal of racetrack bill

2/17/2005

Local control, not Club Motorsports, up for discussion, Merrow says

Nate Giarnese

TAMWORTH-A House legislative committee will hear public comment Thursday on a bill to repeal the state law exempting certain kinds of private driving courses from local racetrack ordinances. From 5 to 7 p.m. at K. A. Brett School, members of the House Municipal and County Government Committee will take local comment at the first of two hearings on HB 90; the second hearing is Tuesday in Concord.

HB 90 would return "private driving instruction and exhibition facilities," under the state umbrella definition, "racetrack," and repeal the law separating Club Motorsports Inc.'s planned facility from big spectator raceways. "This bill repeals RSA 287-G, relative to private driving instruction and exhibition facilities," according to the state's website.

If the law is repealed, legislators have said they are unsure if the Club Motorsports track proposed for Mount Whittier would be grandfathered and remain unregulated by a Tamworth racetrack ordinance.

Legislators say they want to keep Club Motorsports and its planned Valley Motorsports Park out of Thursday's discussion. The main issue they say concerns the loss of local control in Tamworth, and a resulting threat to other towns - that state legislation may also strip them of similar regulatory authorities.

Rep. Harry Merrow of Ossipee, after learning with alarm that the law took away town control of the track, promised last February to file a bill "to flat out repeal," and did so on Sept. 20 with HB 90, as the House filing period opened. Merrow and 399 others in the House and 24 in the Senate, voted for SB 458, now RSA 287-G, which "defines private driving instruction and exhibition facilities and exempts such facilities from local regulation of motor vehicle race tracks."

Rep. David Babson of Ossipee, a cosponsor of the repeal, said that he and other lawmakers were kept in the dark over SB458, as the bill sped through the House and Senate. "Nobody showed up because nobody knew about it," he said.

N.H. Municipal Association also failed to red flag the bill, and like Babson, said they were concerned that SB458 "went under the radar screen," and said it "set a dangerous precedent for seeking legislative relief from local regulation in pending cases where existing municipal and state appeal processes should be used to resolve disagreements."

"The bill is a good thing coming back," Sen. John Gallus, who sponsored SB458, said. "This will give it another chance to be heard. People who feel they didn't get a fair shake will get one this time around." Gallus has said he filed SB458 in the Senate at the request of a House member, whose name he could not remember, after the House filling period was over - a common procedure, he said. The bill would allow a new type of business into the state's economy, he said.

Merrow said he expects a good show of citizens and local politicians at both House hearings. "I've gotten a lot of letters from selectmen around the state," he said. "I expect 50 to 100 people to show up in Concord." More than 250 turned out for the last public hearing in Tamworth in October held by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to discuss the wetlands permit. Most citizens there came out vehemently against the track citing environmental concerns. Merrow, who will introduce background behind his bill to open the hearings, said his brief history should be the only mention of the Club Motorsports project. "This is not about the track," he said. "It's about local control."

Madison selectmen Tuesday agreed to write a statement in support of the repeal, citing strong concern over loss of town control.

The hearing will be recessed and continued at the Legislative Office Building in Concord the following Tuesday morning, Feb. 22 at 10 a.m., according to a House Municipal and County Government Committee press release.