Nearly 70 people have signed a petition to halt a mud racetrack from coming to Walker County, just east of LaFayette. Meanwhile, about 1,200 people have signed a petition supporting it.

The two sides came together Thursday at Commissioner Bebe Heiskell’s regular weekly meeting. About 30 people attended.

Roger and Donna Angland, owners of the 40-acre site where the track is to be constructed, want the property rezoned from residential to commercial.

The county Planning Commission has recommended that the site, off of Ga. 136 near Kemp Road, not be rezoned.

“I want to personally take a look at the property before I make my final decision,” Heiskell said.

“The issue is not what it is, but where it is,” she said.

She cited a need to consider environmental and health issues, as well as the effect the track might have on property values for surrounding property.

Roger Angland said he “wants to bring something for the kids.”

He envisions races three to four Saturdays each year, lasting about five hours for each event.

“I won’t do it on a Sunday because I go to church and I don’t want to mess with people’s Sundays,” Angland said.

The races would be family-oriented and drinking of alcohol would be prohibited, he said They might attract cable networks to televise the events, he said.

Angland said he and his supporters believe those racing in the events would travel from as far away as Texas, bringing money into the local economy through hotels and restaurants.

Angland said the cars would run on alcohol and be as clean as most cars people drive on the roads.

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The racing would be a on a mud track, meeting the National Mud Racing Association regulations, according to Angland.

He said other places have their races at tracks within city limits at fairgrounds.

Supporters liked the idea of positive recreation for local children in the form of working on a vehicle and attending races.

“If we save one kid from getting on drugs or in trouble with the law because of this track, then it is worth it,” said Steve Bell, who lives across the street from the site and who attended Thursday’s commissioner meeting.

Bell said when youths four-wheel, often it is on other people’s property, which places them in jeopardy with the law for trespassing. A racetrack could help alleviate this problem, he said.

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Commissioner Bebe Heiskell is expected to announce her decision on the matter at her regular business meeting Thursday, Feb. 3, at 10 a.m. in Courthouse Annex 1 at 101 S. Duke St. in LaFayette. For more information about the meeting, call (706) 638-1437.

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Non-supporters believe the mud racing track would create more problems.

Karla Sampson, who lives on Ken Visage Road adjacent to the proposed site and who attended Thursday’s meeting, said she is concerned for her mother’s health.

She said her mother, who lives with her, has asthma and emphysema.

Fumes and exhaust from racing vehicles could be harmful, she said.

“I feel it is unfair to ask my mother to leave her house on the race days because she can’t breathe the air,” Sampson said.

She said her family left the city for the rural county in 1975 because the fresh air helps alleviate her mother’s breathing problems.

Most of the remaining opposition is against the track because of potential noise. Many non-supporters said they moved to the area for a quiet peaceful residence. A racetrack in a small valley near their houses is not property improvement, they said.

Roger Parker, who owns land adjacent to the site, said he drove from south of Atlanta to Thursday’s meeting.

Parker said he supports Angland and believes income that the track could bring to the county’s economy overrides 15-20 hours of noise a year.

Addressing the air concern, he said, “I spread chicken litter on my property as fertilizer and it is worse to breathe than exhaust is.”

Angland presented nearly 1,200 signatures from local businesses and residents supporting the rezoning.

Non-supporters presented a petition bearing 68 signatures, as well as three letters, to deny the rezoning request.

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