Motocross Debate Heats Up in Owego

3/5/2013 (Updated 10:43:29 PM)

OWEGO -- There's a  continuing debate that's getting bigger, over the operation of a motocross track on Jim Jackson's pumpkin farm.

At a town board meeting tonight, it was a full house for a public hearing over whether the track should be given permanent permission to operate.
emotions were high, on both sides of the issue.

Prof. Chris Reiber of Campville is against the track, "We can't sit outside. We have to keep our windows closed all through the summer months when he's running because otherwise the sound is in the house. You can't hear your television over the sound of the track. You can't invite people over and visit because there's motocross noise."

Alyssa Zynder, the daughter of the track operator, supports her father, "My father is a farmer and he has a pumpkin farm so the whole business is based on community and children and having a place to go to celebrate the holidays and he works really hard."

Another supporter, Zac Zopp, reflects on how the track affected his childhood, "I wasn't a basketball player. I wasn't a soccer player. I raced motorcycles and more and more of these places are getting closed and we have to fight to keep them open."

Some neighbors complain that the noise disturbs scores of neighbors in the Campville-Marshland Road area, where there are 60 homes within a half mile of the track.