Rutland Aldermen to hold hearing on stock car racing

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(Host) Next week, Rutland residents will have a chance to have their say about a proposal to add stock car racing at the Vermont State fairgrounds.

Fair officials have said they would like to run the automotive races on Saturday nights from May through October beginning next year.

Alderman Bill Gillam is the chairman of the Community Development Committee, which is holding the public hearing.

(Gillam) “The fairgrounds is not used as much as it used to be and obviously the neighbors are really concerned about large crowds. It’d be like fair week every week. So they’re really concerned.”

(Host) Gillam says he wants the community to speak up even though there’s no official action that can be taken right now because the city doesn’t have an application for a permit yet.

He says he expects to hear a variety of points of view, which the aldermen will document for future use.

(Gillam) “The issues with the neighbors are property values; we’re going through a reappraisal they’re concerned about losing the value of their homes due to the traffic that’s going by their homes and the public and crowds might attract to this event. There’s a lot of businesspeople who think this is going to be a good thing for Rutland so the jury is still out, so we’re going to hear from both sides next week.”

(Host) Alderman Gillam says Rutland County residents do have something to compare the racing to, since there are races at a speedway nearby.

(Gillam) “I’ve been to two myself. First of all it’s a dirt track so you’re going to have dust and mud and all sorts of things flying in the air… Ok, that is a known thing of Devils Bowl Speedway people can hear that racing going on in Fair Haven which is 10 to 7 miles away We’ve already had tractor pulls here and you can hear the tractor pulls through the city.”

(Host) But according to Gillam, the final say over the stock car racing falls to the state’s racing commission.

The public meeting in Rutland will be held at 5:30 on Tuesday at City Hall.

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