Mayor breaks tie; kills motocross plan

Last Monday night, city council voted to approve a lease with Pleasant Valley Cycle, LLC, of Kuna, to host motocross racing this summer at Optimist Park.

The resolution, however, was defeated by Mayor Joe B. McNeal's vote of nay after the other council members deadlocked at 2-2.

McNeal joined council members Richard Urquidi and Tom Rist in dissenting while council member Alain Isaac and Mark Russell voted to approve.

"I'm going to vote no on this resolution and then insist that we have an ordinance concerning this issue available at the next meeting," said McNeal.

The proposed lease was drafted after Pleasant Valley Cycle owner Mark Campbell and several local racing enthusiasts approached council at the council meeting on April 24 about signing such an agreement.

In the agreement, the city agrees to lease Optimist Park to Campbell for $1,000 and five percent of their net profit for each of the three racing events that it will promote during May through September of this year.

Russell said that a motor events ordinance will indeed be considered at the next council meeting and if it is approved, Pleasant Valley Cycle will be invited back to try again.

Campbell said that, after last week's council meeting, he later met with McNeal and Parks and Recreation Director Stan Franks behind closed doors to discuss the possibility of the lease still being approved.

"From what I understand the parks and rec board will be drafting an ordinance concerning motorized events at their meeting on May 18th," he said. "Then, if it is completed, it will be presented to city council at their meeting on May 22."

"Finally, if the council approves the ordinance, the mayor will okay the lease and we can host races at Optimist Park."

Campbell also said that McNeal told him he was trying to get the ordinance pushed through as quickly as possible.

"The mayor told me, 'If we can get the ordinance drafted soon enough, I have no problem with you hosting races out there (at Optimist Park),'" said Campbell.

"He also said that I would have to work with Franks in running the park. To which I replied that I had no problem with that."

Campbell said that at this point, he doesn't really even care if he gets the track.

"I originally came down here to see about purchasing some stands from the park," he said. "That's when I was approached about running the track and the offer piqued my interest."

"I thought it would be good for everybody if I was allowed to host races out there, but it's really out of my hands now so there's not much I can do about it."

He said that, along with the contract lease, the insurance policy had also been approved by the council.

"All that remains now is to get that ordinance put into place."

Campbell said that he would be attending both the upcoming parks and rec board meeting and the city council meeting to give it one last try.

"I'm not sure what all is going on behind the scenes down there in Mountain Home, but I still want to run the track because I want kids to have a place to ride."

Finally, he said that if an agreement was not reached at next week's council meeting, it would be too late for him get any races set up for this summer.

Next week's city council meeting is scheduled for Monday night at 6 p.m. at city hall.