Lincoln Aldermen table motion to extended curfews for Lincoln Speedway
Encourage public input

 

[March 22, 2023] 

At the Monday night voting session of the Lincoln City Council, aldermen yielded to a request to table a vote to give special time extensions on very specific race dates to the Lincoln Speedway for the 2023 season.

Former alderwoman Kathy Schmidt had reached out and said that she felt the public needed to have a say in the approval of the motion. She said she was working on a petition of citizens who were opposed to granting the speedway anymore extensions than it already has. Aldermen conceded that it would be fair to allow Schmidt a time to collect her signatures and decided to table the vote until the next voting session on which will be Monday April 3rd.

In the meantime, Alderman Rick Hoefle said that if the city was going to seek out those who might oppose the extension, it should also seek out those who would be in favor. He added that at this time, a survey with 25 signatures opposing the extension would probably not sway his vote.

The topic came to a motion after Adam Mackey of Lincoln Speedway appeared before the council with the 2023 schedule a few weeks ago. When he addressed the council he said that the speedway had used very little of the extension time that has been a part of the agreement between the city and racetrack for the last several years. He also spoke about the big races that are on the schedule this year and said that those races bring in a lot of out of towners who stay over in local motels and visit local eateries and stores.

At that time, the council showed their appreciation for the racetrack and expressed very little if any opposition to the summer schedule. One Question did come from Wanda Lee Rohlfs who said she has a constituent who leaves town on the loudest nights and Rohlfs wondered when the races might be the loudest. Mackey said that was very hard to pin down, but that in theory the races with the largest number of cars on the track at one time would probably be the loudest.

The following week, the council voted to approve the 2023 schedule and to continue on with the traditional 90 minutes worth of extensions.

NOTE: The races schedule includes a curfew of 10:30 p.m. on On Sunday through Thursday nights and 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. There were 90 minutes worth of extensions granted at the request of the racetrack but with stipulations. The extensions were to be divvied out in 15-minute increments, with no more than two increments being used in one race night.

At the end of the voting session during the open discussion/announcement time, Alderman Kevin Bateman asked the council to consider allowing the racetrack to earn extra time on the special race nights, but giving them credit for each night that they finished early. He said that there were three racing events that brought in very large crowds, and though the track managers did a good job of pushing the races through, having extra time would allow for a better racing experience for the viewers.

Aldermen discussed it briefly at that time and further at the committee of the whole meeting the next week. What came from it was a suggestion that instead of going to the trouble of keeping track of time earned, why not give the track an extra 30 minutes on their curfew on those specific nights.

The races that would receive the allowance of a later curfew would include the Thursday, May 11th Castrol FloRacing Night in America race. Bateman said this was a huge race that was even televised so Lincoln Illinois and Lincoln Speedway were viewed by thousands of race fans.

The other races would be the Sunday, June 25 DIRTcar Summer Nationals Hell Tour and a weekend of racing for the DIRTcar Fall Nationals held on Thursday, September 28th through Saturday September 30th. Thursday, September 28th would be a practice day and no extension would be needed. Therefore there would be a total of four 30 minute extensions to the curfews.

At the Monday, March 20th voting session, Bateman made the motion to grant the extensions to the curfew on those four specific nights with Alderman Sam Downs offering the second.

Mayor Tracy Welch was the first to comment saying that he had heard from three citizens who had asked that the council not approve the motion. He has then heard from the fourth constituent, former alderwoman Schmidt who wanted it tables pending further investigation into the will of the constituents.

Alderman Steve Parrott asked first who owned the fairgrounds, the county or a private entity? The answer was a private entity. He then wanted to know more about the televised race, where could people find the race? Bateman said it is televised on FloTV which is a racing channel. He said a lot of the races are on YouTube. Parrot asked if it was on pay-per-view via cable networks such as Comcast. Bateman said it was not pay-per-view, and he supposed if the viewers had purchased the right package that the race would be viewable on television.

Bateman also added that in the request to allow the extra time for the four races, it was one of those things that might not even be needed. He said the race managers do a good job of ending races on time, so they might use a full 30 minutes, part of the time, or even none at all.

Bateman said he wanted the remind everyone that the races are good for the local economy. He said that he sees those large veh8icle haulers parked in parking lots like Wal-Mart and the vacant Kroger lot. Those are people who are coming to town the evening before an event and perhaps staying a night after the event before moving on to the next venue.

Welch said that the aldermen understood the economic impact the races have, but they need to balance that with what is good for the constituents. He said he would have to agree that going beyond 11 p.m. on the Thursday night race would be a bother to people living in the vicinity of the track.

Hoefle asked about Schmidt’s petition, was she moving to do away with the races or just deny the curfew changes? Welch said he understood her to be indicating that the city should not give the speedway any more than what it has already.

Hoefle said that he knew there were many people who do like the races and do attend. He said he would not necessarily be persuaded to change his vote based on one petition.

At the same time, Hoelfe said, “will it hurt us to give the petitioner an opportunity?”

It was also questioned how much time Schmidt wanted to gather her signatures. Welch said she had indicated that she could have her petition within the next two weeks.

The motion on the table made by Bateman and Downs was rescinded and Hoefle moved to table the motion for two weeks with Alderman Tony Zurkammer offering the second. That motion passed by unanimous vote.

After the vote was taken, Hoefle added one last remark. He said that he felt like it was only fair to encourage those who strongly support the track and the extensions to also speak up.

For those who wish to reach out to their aldermen, there is a page on the city website that will help. The page offers the phone numbers of the seven current aldermen as well as a link to an email form for each one. To get to the email, click on the alderperson’s name in red and go to a new page. From there click on the “contact form” tab and follow the directions.

For those who wish to contact Logan County Board Member Kathy Schmidt, her contact information is 201-362-6032 or [e-mail].

[Nila Smith]