ARLINGTON – The green flag has fallen in the race to build a NASCAR racetrack in Snohomish County. One group calls it fun. Another calls it a scar on the land.
In response to the emergence of SCAR, or Snohomish County Citizens Against a Racetrack, business leaders and politicians have reached out to racing fans to form FUN, or Fans United for NASCAR.
Leading FUN is Gigi Burke, co-owner of Crown Distributing, an Anheuser-Busch alcoholic beverage wholesaler in Arlington located near the preferred race site.
Burke said she was approached by Marysville city administrator Mary Swenson and County Executive Aaron Reardon and asked she was interested in getting involved.
On her office wall is an autographed photo of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and herself. “I feel like it’s going to be one of the best things to happen in Snohomish County,” she said.
But Burke’s involvement drew criticism from Eyleen Shouman of SCAR, who lives in Gleneagle, a neighborhood that overlooks the favored track site.
“She has such a vested interest in having that thing here,” Shouman said of Burke’s beer distributing business.
Burke acknowledged that a racetrack would benefit her business, but said that’s not the only reason she is advocating the project. “I personally think everyone’s going to benefit,” she said.
Both groups are getting serious about their organizing, and both plan to attend a community meeting organized by city and county officials June 1 in Marysville.
The groups already have gathered about 1,000 signatures each in petition drives. Each group is plotting strategy in meetings and divvying up tasks such as research, media messages, public meetings and political lobbying.
Burke likened her group’s efforts to a political campaign. FUN has printed about 8,000 copies of an eight-page tabloid touting the benefits of the track. It was paid for by local businesses, including Burke’s.
The pro-track group also is courting labor unions. Dean Shelton of Local 3219 of the International Association of Firefighters in Marysville said his union officially supports the racetrack.
For its part, SCAR plans to send out frequent news releases and has talked about staging public protests.
“We are so different from Gigi,” Shouman said of Burke. “We don’t have a zillion dollars.”
FUN’s support appears to be mainly based in Everett and south Snohomish County. Of 852 signatures counted so far, at least 600 were from Everett or farther south. About 200 were from the Marysville and Arlington areas.
SCAR’s support is strongest closer to the track’s two proposed areas, south of the Arlington Airport and in Lakewood.
One resident of the area, Carla Brown, said Reardon’s support for the track contradicts his goals to maintain the quality of life for Navy families. At least two neighborhoods with mostly Navy families are within a half-mile of either track site, and the Navy has support facilities in Smokey Point.
That’s too close for Brown, a civilian employee at Naval Station Everett, who added that she was not speaking for the Navy.
Most of SCAR’s 1,024 signatures are from nearby neighborhoods, where concerns about noise and traffic are widespread.
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.
NASCAR meeting
A community meeting on the track proposal is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, 5611 108th St. NE, Marysville.
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