Council To Hear Case For BMX Track

WAITSBURG - When you walk Taggert Road with Waitsburg City Councilman Scott Nettles, he can point to all the changes that have taken place here over the past seve ral de- cades.

After all, he grew up here.

There used to be an orchard to the north and asparagus fields to the east and a wrecking yard across the street. There are scattered homes on both sides now. Highway 12 is a good stone's throw away. Not too long ago, there were plans to build 26 homes on a parcel of vacant land.

The road is relatively narrow and, unless you come during harvest time, relatively quiet.

Not terribly well suited to accommodate hundreds of vehicles and trailers that might come here if a proposed BMX track were built on a portion of city-owned land in his opinion.

"Taggert was never designed for heavy traffic," Nettles said. "This is not a prime location to put it (track)."

At the last council meeting, Nettles agreed along with three other members of the council, Marty Dunn, Karl Newell and Kevin House, to hold a public hearing at the regular council meeting next week on plans by Tawnya and Greg McVey for a nationally sanctioned bicycling facility they say would be great for local kids and good for the town.

Orville Branson objected to putting it back on the agenda after the new council had voted earlier to deny the use of five acres within a 20- acre industrial parcel agreed to in principal by the previous council.

Though Nettles and House said they would be open to the idea, they have myriad concerns and the McVeys will have their work cut out for them next Wednesday in making their case for the project.

"I have an open mind but have yet to be convinced," said House, who will be on vacation next week but met with the couple at length this weekend and will share his thoughts with the council in writing.

"I think it's a great idea, but I'm just not sure if it fits at this time," he said. "I don't have enough confidence right now."

Nettles too said he is not opposed to the concept, but has a tough time imagining how it could work on the proposed location with access through Taggert Road.

"I don't want a boondoggle that tax payers pay for," he said, referring to what he believes is the possibility of the city ending up with all sorts of maintenance and other liabilities if the track does not succeed.

He's also opposed to tying up five of the only 20 acres of industrial land the city owns and should hold on to for a year-round manufacturer or another business that would bring well-paying jobs to Waitsburg.

"There's only so much industrial land to go around," he said. "Where, for instance, would you put a winery?"

The McVeys, who spent two and a half years researching the possibility of building a BMX track sanctioned by the American Bicycle Association, said they will try to convince the council there will be no liability or financial exposure to the city under their plan.

All improvements would be covered by in-kind donations of services for the site's development. The operators would bring in generators, water and temporary bathrooms until they could raise enough money for utilities and if the city were willing to sign a lease for the acreage, it could include a review after three years, which is also the minimum commitment the ABA requires to bring in a track design team and approve the venue for its races.

"It shouldn't cost the city anything," Tawnya McVey said. "Even if we had to leave it would be easy to revert the land."

But Nettles said there are always costs, even minimal ones, when it comes to taking back land from failed projects. Plus insurance coverage won't protect the city from being sued frivolously and it will be an expense to defend itself.

House and Nettles also expressed the concern other members of the council have expressed in the past. Will there be enough interest from members in the community to sustain what appears to be an ambitious undertaking, seeing that other less ambitious ones fell by the wayside.

The BMX group in Walla Walla has only several dozen members in a town that has a population of about 30,000.

The McVeys said they plan to organize their group with an oversight committee and a membership structure. Once tied into the ABA network of tracks, plenty of resources will be available through that organization. The couple has already secured cash and in-kind donations from a variety of local supporters for the track's development.

Former Counci lman Leroy Cunningham, who worked on the committee to study the track's feasibility and is still a supporter of it through his nonprofit Rural Green Youth Enterprises, said using up to five acres of city land leaves a healthy 15-acre piece for industrial purposes.

Studies conducted for the proposed housing development on Taggert Road showed the road is plenty strong for heavy traffic and plenty wide for access by Fire Department vehicles, he said. After having studied the existing BMX track off Main Street and the Fairgrounds as alternatives, Cunningham said his committee ruled them out because of flooding, space and traffic concerns.

The next step, he said, ought to be the development of a site plan.