Traffic, pollution, lighting and water resources are among consequences or needs that could arise should the motor sports plans get the green light.
JEAN ORTIZ / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 7:00 pm
Jane Baumgartner’s fears spill out as she strolls along the dusty, rural road.
It’s not just about noise, she says on a recent afternoon pointing out the tree lines and cornfields across the road from her home where uncertainty reigns.
If motor sports entrepreneur Greg Sanford has his way, those 133 acres would be transformed into a quarter-mile drag strip.
The idea has left Baumgartner and her husband — who have the closest home to the site — uneasy. So, too, are some others who live along the rolling countryside about five miles north of Lincoln.
Baumgartner said they are the ones who really have something at stake in all this.
“This is where we live,” she said. “This is our life.”
Traffic, pollution, lighting and even water resources make her list of consequences or needs that could arise should the motor sports plans get the green light.
She has been among the letter writers and the meeting attendees, working to drive home the belief that a drag strip just doesn’t belong in a rural neighborhood.
Baumgartner, who homeschools her six children, also has used the situation to teach how local government works.
She admits, she’s learned some herself.
“We’ve learned more about drag strips than we ever wanted to learn,” she said with a smile.
The County Board is set to consider Sanford’s proposal Tuesday, and could possibly issue a decision that day. The public hearing is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. in the first-floor hearing room in the County-City Building.
The board’s recent approval of restrictions for any motor sports project, including Sanford’s, is a step in the right direction, though it doesn’t necessarily make her more optimistic, Baumgartner said.
“I’m a little nervous,” she said. “It will have potentially a huge impact on our lives.”
Clifford Walstrom, who lives west of Sanford’s land — across the highway — is eager for a decision as well.
“I wished they would make up their mind, one way or another,” he said.
Standing in his garden with a clear view of Sanford’s land, on a break from picking cucumbers and zucchini, Walstrom said his biggest concern would probably be noise.
With a corner property, he’s seen his share of trash left behind by motorists passing through the area and he’s worried more visitors could mean he’d spend more time picking up their discards.
It’s the kind of change he’s not ready to see, said Walstrom, who has lived on the land for nearly 60 years.
“God, I’d hate to think of them making that noise,” he said.
Noise. Dust. Light. Litter.
Like Jane Baumgartner, neighbor Phil Pfeiffer said his concerns are varied.
He’s not opposed to racing, he said. He grew up around stock car racing and it was fun, he admits.
Supporters of the project have touted benefits they see, including millions of dollars flowing into the local economy — figures Pfeiffer said he believes are “very trumped up.”
But not much has been said about the real costs of such a project, he said.
“I think there’s a lot more to lose if they build it,” he said.
He’s proud of the effort the opposition has led and believes they are fighting for the very things Lancaster County is all about.
And though he will carry a sense of cautious optimism into Tuesday’s hearing, with motor sports regulations now in place, he knows, no matter what the board decides on Sanford’s project, the story and his fight are not yet done.
“If they said no, he still owns that land,” Pfeiffer said. “As long as he owns that land, I can’t rest.”
Reach Jean Ortiz at 473-7107 or jortiz@journalstar.com.