NEWS RELEASE -- Focus: Tamworth

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Focus: Tamworth spokesperson:
Charles Greenhalgh
603 356-5439 x 516
Home: 603 323-2908

If unavailable:
Kate Vachon, press coordinator
603 323 8224
moblie: 603 540 4084
focus@focustamworth.org

Citizen group stunned by committee action

Municipal Government committee member resigns over “unfathomable” recommendation

(TAMWORTH, NH, March 23)

Tamworth residents and several legislators today expressed distress and outrage over the 14-5 decision of the NH House Municipal and County Government Committee to declare House Bill 90 “inexpedient to legislate.”

Committee member representative Peter B. Schmidt of Dover told Focus: Tamworth that he will resign from the committee in protest. “This decision tramples the integrity of the House,” he declared.  At least two others on the committee told Focus: Tamworth members privately that they too were outraged by the decision. Also voting “ought to pass” were representatives Suzanne Harvey of Hillsborough, Nancy Johnson of Strafford, Margie Maybeck of Grafton, and Stephen Prichard of Sullivan.

About a dozen Tamworth residents traveled to Concord to observe the committee vote. “We are extremely disappointed by the decision,” said Focus: Tamworth spokesperson Charles Greenhalgh, “especially since the committee heard such overwhelming testimony in favor of the bill from Tamworth residents.”

HB 90 was sponsored by Harry Merrow and co-sponsored by David Babson, both from Ossipee, who represent Tamworth in the NH House. The bill would repeal RSA 287-G (formerly SB 458), which defines “private driving instruction and exhibition facilities” and exempts them from the NH law that allows towns to regulate race tracks.

RSA 287-G was passed at the urging of Club Motorsports Inc (CMI), a Derry, NH developer that wants to build a private racetrack for fast cars and motorcycles on the side of Mt. Whittier in Tamworth. RSA 287-G exempts CMI from regulation by the Tamworth Race Track Ordinance (RTO), signed into law by the selectmen in 2003 and affirmed by an 84% margin at Town Meeting in 2004. The RTO regulates 22 separate items, among them noise levels, hours of operation and handling of hazardous fuels, but under RSA 287-G, its regulations will not apply to the proposed CMI development.

In a highly unusual move, the committee held its hearing on HB 90 in two sessions: one in Tamworth on February 17^th, and a continuation in Concord on February 22. More than seventy-five people spoke at the hearings. In Tamworth, only three people out of 37 spoke against the bill; one was CMI’s lawyer. In Concord, 33 of 49 speakers were in favor of the bill, and the 15 who opposed it included several CMI officials, lobbyists and club members. The NH Municipal association also argued for passage.

Rep Schmidt was particularly outraged by what he termed the “illogic” of the committee’s action. “I did not hear one legitimate argument” against the bill, he said.

Arguments for the bill’s passage centered on restoring the local control that was taken away by RSA 287-G. But the issues raised in executive session by the committee members who opposed the bill, according to Schmidt, focused on the merits of the proposed CMI racetrack and missed the point of the bill. HB 90, Schmidt pointed out, was not written to stop the racetrack development, only to restore Tamworth’s ability to control it. 

Opponents on the committee also argued that HB 90 brought the legislature into a local development dispute. Schmidt said he found that argument “unfathomable,” since the legislature put itself squarely in the middle of a local dispute when it passed RSA 287-G.

Schmidt has indicated he will join Babson and Merrow to fight hard for passage of HB 90 when it comes before the full House, probably next week.

At Tamworth Town Meeting on March 9, voters passed a noise ordinance that regulates noise from private driving instruction and exhibition facilities. The margin in favor was 65%. “After the passage of the Race Track Ordinance in 2004 and now the Noise Ordinance, Tamworth voters clearly want some regulation of this development,” Greenhalgh said. “The committee’s recommendation sets an unfortunate precedent by saying that anyone unhappy with a local ordinance can go get a legislative exemption from regulation. The issue of regulation should be a local one. We hope that the full House will take a different view and vote to pass HB 90 and restore local control for Tamworth and the rest of New Hampshire’s 234 towns.”

Focus: Tamworth is a coalition of local residents who support careful and fair regulations that protect Tamworth’s economic and natural resources. More information on Focus: Tamworth is available at www.focustamworth.org. A backgrounder on HB 90 is available at http://www.focustamworth.org/hb_90_and_rsa_287.htm.

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