Parks owner plans presentation to county

Thursday, May 26, 2005

The fight over 228 feet of road between Beech Bend Raceway Park owner Dallas Jones and his neighbor, Matt Baker, isnt over yet.

Jones and his attorneys plan a presentation to Warren County Fiscal Court at 10 a.m. Friday, asking magistrates to once again adopt the disputed stretch into the county road system.

They are asking hotel and restaurant owners and others who depend on tourism dollars for their profits to assemble at fiscal court in a show of support for Beech Bend.

Use of road is essential to the continued viability of Beech Bend Raceway Park and its ability to host large events, said Jones attorney, Dennis Murrell.

Logan Circuit Judge Tyler Gill ruled May 10 that, while the last few feet of road leading past Bakers house to Beech Bends property were part of the county system from 1975 to 1993 as the preceding 1.5 miles still are fiscal court closed that final section 12 years ago when magistrates approved a new county road map that listed the road as a tenth of a mile shorter than before.

Since the road has, in Gills opinion, been opened and closed by the county before, Beech Bend will ask magistrates to simply open it again, Murrell said.

Fiscal court declared in December 2003 that the road was county property, showing that magistrates meant for the road to be kept open, he said.

We understand thats what the county has always intended to do, Murrell said.

On May 12 Jones attorney, Michael Tigue, sent a letter to attorney Whayne Priest, who was hired to represent the county in legal actions involving the road. Tigues letter includes a formal request for fiscal court to condemn the 228 feet in question and re-establish it as a county public road.

It says such a move would benefit not only Jones but the public and emergency vehicles seeking access to the racetrack.

Tigue says fiscal court would have to use its eminent domain power to condemn the land in order to make it a county road, if no purchase agreement with the landowners Matt Baker and his brother-in-law, Tom Reynolds can be reached.

His letter also asks the court to order the road open for temporary use until the condemnation action is settled under a state law allowing temporary public use of a road, alleging that keeping it closed would hurt Beech Bend, and thus Warren Countys tourism industry.

At Jones request, Bowling Green Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Gary West supplied a letter citing figures from the Kentucky Data Center, which estimates that 10 major racing events at Beech Bend bring about $19 million into the local economy from 200,000 visitors.

Warren County Attorney Amy Milliken whose husband Wesley Milliken, and father-in-law, Currie Milliken, are the attorneys representing Baker said she was unsure what process the county would need to use to reopen the road. She could research the issue at fiscal courts request, but so far no magistrates have asked for that research, she said Wednesday.

Amy Milliken has tried to remain out of the case, since the county hired Priest to represent it when Baker filed suit against fiscal court, she said.

Priest declined comment.

Jones and Baker have disputed the status of the road, which runs about 700 feet from the main Beech Bend entrance past Bakers house and joins a lane running to Beech Bends racetrack, for several years. It has been used by thousands of fans and participants at racing events as easier and more direct than the winding, tree-lined lane that serves as Beech Bends main entrance. But those cars and trucks blocked Bakers driveway for hours.

Jones filed suit over the road in June 2003. Magistrates declared in December 2003 that the road was county property, and Baker sued the county in response. Those cases were combined in March 2004.

Gill, specially appointed to handle the case, decided Dec. 16 that it couldnt be proven that the entire length was a county road, so the final 228 feet was essentially closed to race traffic. A jury was expected to decide whether the road remained public, but that trial was twice delayed and rendered moot by Gills May 10 summary judgment for Baker.

Four Warren County magistrates sat in on the final hearing, after they voted to join a request by Jones to use the road for access to six big races between May 16 and July 11, pending the anticipated jury trial. That request failed when Gill ruled the road to be private.

Jones has said that he hasnt decided whether to appeal Gills decision. An appeal would have to be filed by June 9.

Contracts have already been signed for six major racing events this summer, so those will continue whatever the roads status, he has said.

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