Ultimatum Issued To Doublin Gap Motocross Park

ÿAccording to the Carlisle, PA, Sentinel :

Hopewell Township Supervisor Gene Mellinger held up a piece of paper he called “a list of broken promises” Monday night and declared “no more.” Mellinger’s challenge to Rod and Jeff Yentzer – operators of the Doublin Gap Motocross racetrack – and their attorney William Duncan came at the tail-end of the latest township meeting focused on the motorcycle racetrack.

“I’ve been here for seven years,” Mellinger said, as 19 township residents listened. “This is all I hear about. Every month I hear something, there is someone in here complaining (about the racetrack).” Mellinger and fellow supervisors Danny Forrester and Curt Myers issued an ultimatum Monday, directing the Yentzers to sign a written agreement to regulate the Doublin Gap operation or face “something worse.”

Board Chairman Myers said the racetrack operators have until Feb. 19 to sign the agreement.

“You have (a copy of) the agreement,” Myers said. “We’re comfortable with it. If it’s not signed by Feb. 19, we’ll impose something even worse.”

The Yentzers and Duncan assured supervisors they would think about the ultimatum. “I’ll talk to the parties and see what we can do,” Duncan said, although the principal parties – Rod and Jeff Yentzer – were sitting beside him. County tax records, however, indicate that the Yentzers’ parents – Rodney and Carol Yentzer – are the principal owners of the racetrack property. Rod Yentzer said the Feb. 19 deadline would be difficult to meet since his parents are in Florida until the end of the month. Myers suggested a telephone conference unless the elder Yentzers are “incapacitated and unable to speak on the phone.”

Supervisors did not specify what their enforcement options are if the Yentzers refuse to sign the agreement. However, their comments suggested that contact with the American Motorcycle Association that sanctions Doublin Gap races, or with the insurer that provides coverage for the track are possible.

Terms of the written agreement – composed by township solicitor Sally Winder and delivered to the Yentzers about two weeks ago – were also withheld despite requests from township residents to see the document. Supervisors admit they have no current tools to force the Yentzers to take steps to limit noise, dust and rowdy late night behavior at the track where off-road two-wheelers – or dirt bikes – race on a 40-acre parcel on the edge of the village of Newburg. Neighbors have complained to township officials regularly since the Yentzers acquired the track in 1998. Previous supervisors determined the racetrack was a preexisting nonconforming use “grandfathered” under the township’s zoning ordinance. Supervisors insist the Yentzers have reneged on a series of verbal commitments over the years and violated the terms of a conditional use permit issued last year to allow the racetrack operators to construct a new entrance to the site.

There were no Doublin Gap supporters among the 19 township residents at Monday’s meeting. Many – like Harold Bender – were angry. He described the Yentzers as “arrogant” and “disrespectful” and displayed photographs of clouds of dust billowing from the track as recently as Dec. 10. Bender says he complained to supervisors about the dust. “Your comment to the supervisors was ?we’re not making much dust,’ well here are the photographs,” Bender said.

Some – like Jason Negley – seemed regretful that the situation has spiraled so far downward. “My first job was as a flagman at the track when the previous owners owned it, and I’ve done some racing myself, but when it’s 2 or 3 a.m. and the noise is coming in your windows, it stinks,” Negley said.