Conway Daily Sun
10/9/2004

Tamworth residents against racetrack overwhelm public hearing

Army Corps lawyer admits it's hard to analyze public welfare, aesthetics

Nate Giarnese

TAMWORTH—Like the racetrack he is fighting to build, Club Motorsports Inc. president Stephan Condodemetraky must have felt alone in the Tamworth woods Wednesday night at a packed public hearing called by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.

Following a 20-minute presentation by CMI, all but one of 46 speakers implored the Corps to deny a permit application that would allow the Derry developer to break ground on a 251-acre motorsports country club on the north bank of Mount Whittier. Of the 201 people attendees, 58 registered to go on record, according to Corps. media relations.

"CMI, giants walk through these woods, giants that will protect these woods and giants of common sense," warned Thomas Abugelis, owner of the Dam Ice Cream Shop in Chocorua, at the tail end of the three and a half-hour hearing at the Brett School in Tamworth. The reprehension was backed up by three hours of testimony from scientists, health professionals, local politicians, teachers, church pastors, lawyers, economists and conservationists, and other area residents, submitted to the Corps and DES until 11 p.m.

Abugelis was among several small-business owners who stirred emotions in the crowd and offered a grim post-track vision for the local economy. Tourists seeking a peaceful retreat, he said, may steer away from a once-quiet town gone loud and busy under the shadow of a mountainside racetrack resort. Ninety percent of his ice cream and gift business is tourist-driven, he said.

Tamworth's economy, local businessmen Tom Vachon and Bob Schrader agreed, is leveraged on the area's quiet, rural character. Noise from racing motorcycles and cars, increased traffic and a new glut on a below-capacity lodging market will reduce tourism dollars, close an inn and possibly drive Vachon's expanding software company to quieter pastures, according to testimony from the two.

"Everything focuses on the pristine environment of Tamworth," Tamworth Inn owner, Schrader said. "People come here to escape the hectic noise of the city lifestyle," he said. "Noise, traffic and crowds will impact- basically destroy — the environment and why people come here." Schrader added that should CMI build its planned phase two 75-room hotel and dining room, business-strapped local inns would suffer. He said the average occupancy rate of inns around Tamworth is about 30 percent, and most owners struggle to get by, even with outside sources of income. "This will have a negative impact on our business," he said, and "pretty much ensure an inn would go out of business."

According to Vachon, the specter of major development hovering over the work environment that he, his investors and his employees have come to expect, may lead him to move his growing software firm out of Tamworth. With him will go 15 to 20 planned new jobs, Vachon said, each paying $25,000 to $30,000, including fully-paid health insurance, otherwise to be filled locally.

"My self, my employees and my investors are faced with the threat of a possible nuisance spoiling our environment," should the permit be granted he said, "As much as I regret it, we're going to have to take the company elsewhere and give the jobs to some other town."

Vachon is the husband of citizens' group, FOCUS: Tamworth, spokesperson, Kate Vachon, whose group was represented by many voices on Wednesday, including venture capitalists and Focus members, Alex Moot and Stephen Gaal, and Focus attorney, Sherri Young. The trio argued that CMI's finances and experience may prove inadequate to complete the project. If construction were abandoned mid-way though, they and many others fear, the town would be left alone to absorb the environmental clean-up bill.

Young first asked the Corps to deny the permit application, adding should the agency decide to issue a permit, it should require the CMI to post bond to pay for environmental restoration, should cost-overruns in excess of $20 million stop the 251-acre motorsports park project in it tracks. The group fears restoration costs would fall onto taxpayers.

Developers say they will complete the park's construction on the side of Mt. Whittier in Tamworth at any cost, while standing by their original estimate of $28 million. "Both myself and the investor group involved has the financial where for all to build 50 of these facilities," Condodemetraky boasted at the onset of the hearing.

The lone echo in the woods to Condodemetraky's insistence that his proposed motorsports park would create 50 jobs and boost the local economy came from a local resident, and what he called a "silent majority" of 265. Jim Boothby said he represented people who get up before the sun, work hard and support the track. He submitted a 265-name petition, including 119 from Tamworth, he said, and is in many cases signed by entire families.

Boothby, who has been a regular track proponent, said the track will bring needed jobs and will not create a noise problem in Tamworth. "I believe it will bring good jobs," he said. "I don't see how this project will cause any more sound than is already being generated," noting that Tamworth already has Route 16, a crusher and a logging yard.

CMI attorney, Susan Duprey specified that the highly scrutinized project site neighbors a number of loud machinery yards, including chipping, gravel and logging operations and a transfer station, none of which was built under as many watchful eyes as are now staring down the track. "Our site is not in the middle of an untouched wilderness," she said. "I’m confident that there is not a single use in the surrounding area that has been as carefully engineered as this one. Many support the track, hundreds have applied for jobs," she said, adding CMI has approached selectmen about noise.

The Corps also heard testimony relating to potentially harmful effects of blasting on the Ossipee aquifer, Bearcamp River and rare natural formations in and around the Ossipee Mountains. Delicate ecosystems and thousands of unmonitored private wells may stand to be degraded by erosion and high performance gasolines, scientists and conservationists warned.

The purpose of the hearing, according to the Corps, was to evaluate the track's probable impacts, both tangible and intangible, and weigh them against the broad public interest. "The benefit which may reasonably accrue from the proposal must be balanced against its reasonably foreseeable detriments. All factors which may be relevant to the proposal will be considered, including the cumulative effects thereof: among those are: conservation economics, aesthetics, general environmental concerns, wetlands, cultural value, fish and wildlife values, flood hazards, flood plain value, land use, navigation, shoreline erosion and accretion, recreation, water supply and conservation, water quality, energy needs, safety, food production and, in general, the needs and welfare of people" as stated in the Corps public notice.

'I'ts a gray area," described Corps attorney Michael Hicks, of hard to quantify criteria such as "aesthetics" and "public welfare." "It's certainly hard to analyze. Wetland impact is physical, you can see it on the ground," he said. "But we evaluate a whole litany of impacts; social welfare, economic and public health."

Hicks said its not unusual for opponents to come out heartily against large-scale developments at Corps hearings. "With a project like this, it's probably not very unusual. Given the environmental setting and the uniqueness of this area, you could probably name a whole litany of projects they would be opposed to... a gas storage facility or a facility that makes automobiles," he said.

HIcks also said much of Wednesday night's testimony was no surprise, as he reported receiving a barrage of letters on subject; letters which ultimately prompted the Corps' decision to hold the relatively uncommon public hearing. The meeting was held only to add concerns to the public record, HIcks said. Comment will be included in the review process. "We haven't decided anything yet,'" he said. "If something is going to be severe it will pop up," Hicks said. "If it would cause cancer," for example.

The federal permit review will consider whether or not the proposed Valley Motorsports Park and road course will acceptably impact noise level, public safety, wildlife and the Ossipee aquifer which runs from Bartlett to Saco, Maine.

According to the Corps the impacts must be minimal. NHDES has already issued CMI a Wetlands Dredge and Fill permit, stating that the Valley Motorsports Park will impact less than three-quarters of an acre of wetlands and will not significantly impair wetlands, surface waters, and groundwater resources; and a Site Specific “Alteration of Terrain” permit.

The Army Corps of Engineers will accept written comments for the public record until October 16 at 5 p.m. Written statements of public comment should reference File #NAE-200302257 and should be forwarded to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District, Regulatory Division (ATTN: Michael Hicks), 696 Virginia Road, Concord, MA 01742-275, (978) 318-8157.