Historic Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove, Wisconsin, is under attack by whiny neighbors who are complaining about the noise and the light from the race track. As usual, the track pre-dates all of the housing that these people are living in, yet it’s that track that is having to fight to keep from being slapped with all sorts of regulations.
The good news is that the track recently “won” a round in the increasingly intense battle, when a city noise study determined that the strip was not that loud at all. Neighbors were subjected to 65dB of sound, about the same as a normal conversation. In a perfect world, city fathers would have gotten this news and dismissed the neighbors’ complaints and moved on. Unfortunately, this is reality. There is a meeting set for January where the issues will be discussed again and it is expected that the leaders may implement some new noise and light bylaws for the town.
If the worst thing that happens is that racers will be required to run mufflers and an evening curfew is imposed, we wouldn’t be happy, but we could live with that. If the place is legislated out of existense by some idiotic rules, we’re going to be totally pissed.
The short-sighted nature of people never ceases to amaze us. We’re nearly 100 percent sure that all the property that the strip sits on is taxable land and that would mean the track is probably one of the largest tax payers in town. Those teachers, cops, and firefighters? They don’t exist without tax money. Killing the strip would deal an economic blow to this area and it is clear none of the neighbors know, or car, about that fact. Here’s the track website.
