Local & State Headlines

Race track stirs critics

• A local businessman's purchase of the Albany Motor Speedway is contingent upon Dougherty County Commission action.

Carlton Fletcher

ALBANY — A number of residents in the Radium Springs and Putney areas spoke out against a businessman’s request for permission to allow racing of various types of motorized vehicles at the Albany Motor Speedway during a public hearing Monday morning.

Held during the Dougherty County Commission’s bi-monthly business session, the public hearing concerned a request by the speedway’s current owner, restaurateur Harold Farnsworth, to allow the racing of stock cars and trucks, go-carts, four-wheelers, motorized and nonmotorized bicycles and Legends race cars at the track.

Tim Pafford, who plans to buy the track from Farnsworth pending the commission’s approval of the request to allow for the racing of vehicles other than Legends cars, told commissioners he simply wanted to continue a practice that had been going on under several ownership groups since Pafford had sold the track some seven years ago.

“I’m asking for legal permission to do what’s already being done at the track,” Pafford said. “I came to you to meet the guidelines and be in total compliance.”

Planning Manager Mary Teter told Commissioners the Albany-Dougherty Planning Commission had unanimously approved Farnsworth’s request with the conditions that he maintain a 100-foot buffer from the east and north property lines and add a 10-foot-wide landscaped buffer to the north and west property lines, but audience members argued that those same conditions had been placed on the track in 1998, yet were never enforced.

“The truth is, this track has not been a good neighbor,” Nancy Barkley, secretary of the Radium Springs Neighborhood Association, told commissioners. “The truth is, this commission has been lied to before. We oppose this request based on a 10-year history of extreme noise.

“We’re the ones who are left with the noise that pollutes our lives.”

Pafford told the commission “financial constraints” had plagued the track and left him unable to meet the conditional requirements demanded in ’98. But he vowed they would be met this time.

“You know if you do not get this done, we will lock the doors,” Commissioner Jack Stone said.

“Mr. Commissioner, if I am not in compliance within 45 days (of being granted permission to race the vehicles), I expect you to lock the doors on me,” Pafford said. “In fact, I’ll help you lock them.”

Dr. Charles Harden, a long-time Radium Springs resident, refuted Pafford’s contention that the speedway will benefit the community.

“It might help some of the hotels in town, but I can’t see where this will benefit East Albany or Albany,” Harden said. “From what I’ve heard, it’s objectionable to everybody except the people who will make money off it.”

Nearby resident Bobby Moore asked commissioners to consider the history of the track.

“There have been promises made that haven’t been fulfilled,” he said. “I ask you to think before you take action, to listen to the will of the people.”

Commissioners will discuss the matter at their March 31 work session and take a binding vote at their April 7 business meeting.

In other action at Monday’s meeting, the commission voted to require a minimum of 175 feet of spacing between driveways at new subdivisions developed on the county’s arterial roads and approved the purchases of three new county vehicles.

Automobiles approved include a 2008 Ford Explorer for the sheriff’s department from Allan Virgil Ford ($19,588), a Ford Crown Victoria Interceptor for the Dougherty County Jail from Ford Town of Albany ($20,757.20) and a Ford Econoline Van for the jail from Ford Town ($20,048.25).

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