custom ad
NewsMarch 2, 1994

Jim Reed is confident there aren't enough horses in the go-carts he would bring to Cape Girardeau to pull the Kart Inc. recreation project off track. In fact, Reed says the Pacer go-carts that will be tested by members of the Cape Girardeau City Council at 1 p.m. Monday are no louder that a vacuum cleaner...

BILL HEITLAND

Jim Reed is confident there aren't enough horses in the go-carts he would bring to Cape Girardeau to pull the Kart Inc. recreation project off track.

In fact, Reed says the Pacer go-carts that will be tested by members of the Cape Girardeau City Council at 1 p.m. Monday are no louder that a vacuum cleaner.

"A physics professor from Batesville, Ark., conducted his own test and said that from 10 feet away the go-carts operate on the same decibel level as a vacuum cleaner," said Reed, who would become the manager of the Kart Inc. operation if the city council gives the green light for the estimated $250,000 project. "At 100 feet away, it drops down to 50 decibels."

According to James McHaney, an attorney who represents the operators of the amusement project, Kart Inc. plans to have the track ready for use by summer.

"Once this is approved, it shouldn't take very long to get the track ready," said McHaney, who has several photographs of the proposed site, a 2.6-acre tract situated at the corner of Lexington and Kingshighway.

"This has been called everything from an eyesore to a public nuisance," he said. "The latest complaint from residents is that it would be too loud for them to go about their day-to-day activity without being bothered.

"You can see from these pictures that the closest house or church is a half mile away. You can barely see the homes of the people who are complaining because a row of trees blocks their path to the site."

McHaney said a nuisance is defined by law as "activity by a landowner that unreasonably prevents another landowner from having reasonable enjoyment of his or her property."

According to Reed, the decibel level is 78, the same noise produced by a 9 horsepower Honda lawnmower engine.

Receive Daily Headlines FREESign up today!

"I guess another way to look at it is that it would be no louder than listening to cars traveling on the highway," said Reed. "If we would have 15 go-carts in operation at one time, it would be the same as 15 cars travelling along the highway at the same time."

Reed noted that the go-carts destined for Cape Girardeau's proposed track will not exceed speeds of 25-27 mph. "It depends on the weight of the driver, but the average speed would be around 25," said Reed, who said he would maintain full control of all cars in the event of a spinout or collision.

Kart Inc. saw its plans for a proposed go-cart operation temporarily halted when Cape residents brought more than 100 signatures to last week's city council meeting of residents opposed to the go-cart track.

On Feb. 7, the council gave first-round approval of a special use permit for the facility, but tabled final passage last week.

"We're going to bring three of our go-carts to the site where we plan to build the track and have members of the city council and a professor (from Southeast Missouri State) test the noise level," said Reed.

For the past year, the owners of Kart Inc. have operated a go-cart facility at Batesville called Riverfront Grand Prix.

"The facility in Batesville adjoins the city park," said Reed. "The city welcomed us with open arms because, in all honesty, there wasn't that much to do here.

"We hope that we will be able to do in Cape Girardeau what we've accomplished here. We were thoroughly impressed with Cape. It's an attractive city for our go-cart operation because it's well landscaped and has a lot of nice stores to complement what we are doing."

Batesville's population is about 10,000. "We've been averaging 2,250 people a week at this go-cart track," said Reed. "Since Cape is a bigger city, we would probably draw more there and generate a tax base of around $28,000."

Reed said go-carts already have been bought and earmarked for Cape Girardeau. "If it doesn't work out in Cape, we'll just go somewhere else," he said. "There are plenty of cities that would like to have something like this."

Story Tags
Advertisement

Connect with the Southeast Missourian Newsroom:

For corrections to this story or other insights for the editor, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To learn about the Southeast Missourian’s AI Policy, click here.

Advertisement
Receive Daily Headlines FREESign up today!