NEWS RELEASE -- Focus: Tamworth

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Focus: Tamworth spokesperson:

Charles Greenhalgh

603 356-5439 x 516

If unavailable:

Steve Gaal, steering committee member

603 284 7183; cell 603 651 9183

Kate Vachon, press coordinator

603 323 8224

Citizens’ group disappointed by Senate vote

Says efforts to regulate Club Motorsports facility will continue

(TAMWORTH, NH, May 5)

Focus: Tamworth members and other Tamworth residents were disappointed in yesterday’s failure of HB 90 in the New Hampshire Senate. By a vote of 14 to 10, the Senate accepted the Transportation and Interstate Cooperation committee’s report of “inexpedient to legislate,” killing a bill that would have restored local control of private driving courses to towns across the state.

“We’re grateful to the legislators and others who fought hard for this bill,” said spokesperson Charles Greenhalgh. “Our Tamworth Reps Harry Merrow and David Babson, Dover Representative Peter Schmidt, and Judy Silva of the New Hampshire Municipal Association worked hard to convince the Senate to follow the lead of the House, but in the end corporate money and interests won out over the principle of local control. Senator Kenney also spoke in support of our town meeting vote to regulate this type of race track.”

Greenhalgh said that the group would continue to work for local regulation of the private racetrack proposed for Tamworth. “We will rely on the Tamworth Noise Ordinance, which passed at Town Meeting in March by a wide margin, to control the most intrusive aspect of the racetrack,” he said. He also noted that CMI has still not received its Army Corps of Engineers permit, and has not applied for the Special Use Permit it needs under the Tamworth Wetlands Ordinance.

Focus: Tamworth has appealed the Water Quality Certificate recently granted to the project, on the grounds that CMI did not provide sufficient information about its handling of hazardous racing fuels containing MtBE.

In an unusual vote on April 6th, the House overturned a committee report to amend and pass HB 90, 273-76. A group of Tamworth residents, including some active Focus: Tamworth members, made a series of trips to Concord as citizen lobbyists to encourage legislators to support the bill. “We were successful in the House, but couldn’t compete with Club Motorsports’ professional lobbyists and deep pockets in the Senate,” Greenhalgh commented.

If it had passed, HB 90 would have restored the right of local communities across the state to regulate “private driving instruction and exhibition facilities” under RSA RSA 31:41-a and RSA 31:42, blunting the effect of RSA 287-G, quietly passed last year at the urging of Club Motorsports Inc. RSA 287-G defined “private driving instruction and exhibition facilities” and made them exempt from regulation as racetracks under RSA 31:41-a and RSA 31:42.

Club Motorsports wants to build a private racetrack for fast cars and motorcycles on the north slope of Mt. Whittier in Tamworth. Construction on the track has not started, and CMI recently delayed its estimated opening until the fall of 2006.

    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.

-end-