Resident: Latest noise order falls short of effectiveness

Resident: Latest noise order
falls short of effectiveness
Raceway Park neighbor
claims Manalapan effort
is victory for drag strip
By dave benjamin
Staff Writer

MANALAPAN — The Township Committee has passed a resolution seeking assistance from state and county governments to address residents’ ongoing concerns about noise from the Raceway Park drag strip in neighboring Old Bridge.

The resolution requests "immediate, effective action be taken by the governor, the Legislature, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Monmouth County and Middlesex County to protect the health, safety and well-being of the citizens of Manalapan and the citizens of all other affected municipalities by ending the noise pollution created by Raceway Park."

A copy of the resolution will be for­warded to the governor, legislators repre­senting Manalapan, the DEP commis­sioner, the freeholders of Monmouth and Middlesex counties and neighboring communities.

At the same time they passed that reso­lution, the committee members heard from a resident who said an amended court order that is supposed to address the noise issue actually serves the drag strip’s interests.

"While I am thankful for the mayor’s proposed resolution demanding state action on the race track noise issues and his goal to have other affected municipalities pass similar resolutions, all to be presented to our state legislators and the DEP, I must caution as to my past experiences along these lines." said Arnold Feldman, of Ashby Court.

Feldman said that in the past, letters to state representatives were answered with understanding and sympathetic letters ex­pressing the legislators’ understanding of the situation involving Raceway Park and neighboring residents. The responses indi­cated that the DEP would be contacted to investigate the situation, he said.

"About two months after that they would receive a letter back from the DEP, advising that the DEP had researched the matter thoroughly over the years and has concluded that regulation of this issue is best handled at the local level, as no one state regulation will work well for the dif­ferent race tracks around the state," Feldman told the committee at its March 26 meeting. "As a result, they do not be­lieve any new state regulation or modifica­tion of the existing state noise code is warranted.

"This same idiotic and inane response has been offered by them countless times over the past 12 years, despite their knowl­edge that, unlike communities that have race tracks within their municipal limits, Manalapan is powerless to enforce any regulations on neighboring Old Bridge.

"While I fully support and appreciate the proposed resolution, I believe legal ac­tion against Old Bridge and/or the DEP must also be pursued," said Feldman. "Some may complain that we have spent enough money in our efforts to enforce the court orders against Raceway Park with little or nothing to show for them. However, the reason nothing positive has come of those efforts, I am sorry to advise, has been due to a lack of proper manage­ment of the effort by the township. In this last effort, the court fell for Raceway Park’s stall and delay tactic and we failed to follow-up.

"Instead, this township accepted a new court order, presented by [the former town­ship attorney] as a resolution of the recent legal actions and that document is a dis­grace and a complete disaster," said Feldman. "Instead of bringing some clo­sure to the ongoing violations of the previ­ous orders, it has given Raceway Park nu­merous additional racing days, full use of noise- and power-enhancing nitrous oxide for all races and rescheduling of additional super-loud days to weekends."

Contacted for comment by Greater Media Newspapers, Michael Napp, president of Raceway Park, said Raceway Park is in compliance with all court orders and government regulations as they relate to the operation of Raceway Park and New Jersey’s racing facilities.

Napp said he believes the amended or­der now in place in Manalapan clarifies the number of racing days and the types of ve­hicles which may be used on specific days.

He said he believes it strengthens the track’s racing car muffler policy and was an attempt on the part of the Manalapan government to make the regulations easier to understand.

"We want to be good neighbors. We’ve been here for 38 years and we’re not going anywhere. We will do our best to comply" with all pertinent regulations, Napp said. "When Mr. Feldman gets on his crusade he is using Manalapan taxpayer dollars and I don’t think that 99 percent of the town cares about his battle."

Napp said that after working out the situation last year [with the amended court order] at great expense to himself, Feldman’s annual complaints about the sounds of racing that come from the track border on harassment against the drag strip’s operators.

Greater Media Newspapers staff writer Mark Rosman contributed to this story.