Raceway receives another extension for permit

The Shawano Leader/July 7, 2006
By Tim Ryan

A month after being warned in no uncertain terms that it would lose its conditional use permit if it was still in violation of building codes, USA International Raceway was granted another extension on Wednesday.

Shawano County Planning, Development and Zoning Committee members felt the good faith effort put forward by the racetrack since its June meeting was sufficient for maintaining the permit.

“I feel comfortable they made an effort to comply in the short time we gave them,” said committee chairman Bob Krause. “It’s still not really compliance, but it is a good faith effort.”

The racetrack, which is part of Midwest Amusement Park – a subsidiary of the Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology – has a building that has not been given final approval by the state Department of Commerce.

That approval is required for a commercial building that exceeds 50,000 cubic feet.

Zoning enforcement director Robert Jacobson said that since last month’s committee meeting, he has met with Midwest representatives and an architectural consultant hired by the track.

Jacobson said Midwest has also gotten “conditional approval” from the state, but will still need to file a report and have an inspection done when work on the building is finished.

Planning director Tim Reed told the committee he had no problem with another extension.

“It’s true they haven’t met the deadline, but you can see they’ve put their best foot forward,” he said. “If I hadn’t seen any effort, I’d have a lot more trouble with it.”

There was also some discussion of fire code violations that were presented last month to the committee by fire inspector Jeff Zimmerman.

Racetrack manager Scott Paape said the buildings are now in compliance.

Zimmerman was not present for Wednesday’s meeting.

Committee members were adamant, as they were at last month’s meeting, that the next meeting date was the racetrack’s final deadline for coming into compliance.

“If you don’t, you’re done,” said District 13 supervisor Kathy Luebke. “We’re going to take the permit away and you won’t race.”