Speedway, county spar over $342,745
NEW BREMEN — After apparently settling up with a state agency, Adirondack International Speedway is being hit up by Lewis County for more than $340,000 for the alleged default of a 2004 state attorney general's office settlement.
However, the attorney for the Artz Road speedway claims the county's action is unwarranted and intends to file suit to prove it.
"We are commencing an action to determine that the mortgage is void," Watertown attorney David P. Antonucci said.
"It is a debt that is owed the county," countered County Attorney Richard J. Graham. "The county has an obligation to preserve its rights."
The state comptroller's office in March 2004 determined that a $500,000 state Department of Transportation grant the county accepted to assist the speedway was transferred improperly. Based on a settlement reached with the attorney general's office later that year, $117,275 that hadn't been used was returned to the county for road paving projects, and the speedway paid an additional $40,000 to the county.
The speedway was not required to pay back the remaining $342,745, but the county was granted a mortgage with a security interest in the track in that amount.
The county would not receive that money unless the speedway is sold for a use "other than recreational purposes," the company commences bankruptcy proceedings or "all or a substantial part of the AIS business" is voluntarily suspended.
Suggesting the latter scenario has occurred, Mr. Graham earlier this week sent a letter to Mr. Antonucci stating that the money must be paid within 30 days or the county would commence foreclosure proceedings on the property.
Speedway owner Paul H. Lyndaker in November announced that he won't be holding races next season — citing high taxes and state-mandated water system improvements as the primary factors — but that he hoped to reopen eventually.
"The way I read their Web site, they have ceased operations for 2010 with no inclination as to when they're going to reopen," Mr. Graham said.
Mr. Antonucci said the lack of scheduled races doesn't necessarily mean the entity is not still in business.
"We may do a host of things," he said.
The speedway's attorney also contends that the terms of the mortgage were set for a limited time that has since expired and that "the way it was drafted makes it unenforceable."
The mortgage itself doesn't appear to include any time restrictions.
Mr. Lyndaker paid off nearly $86,000 in back property taxes from the past two years before the Feb. 1 deadline to keep the county from foreclosing on the racetrack because of tax delinquency.
A sheriff's sale of the 136.1-acre track parcel off Artz Road and three other speedway-owned parcels, totaling 311.8 acres, had been scheduled for late January but was canceled a couple of days prior.
The proposed sale stemmed from a February 2009 order by Judge Louis B. York, a state Supreme Court judge in Manhattan, that the New Bremen speedway repay a $300,000 grant awarded by Empire State Development Corp. in 2002, plus 9 percent annual interest since Jan. 1, 2005. That amounts to $411,932.31.
Judge York determined the company failed to meet the grant's job creation goal of 33 employees from 2004 through 2007.
Speedway officials apparently reached a repayment agreement with the ESD, but terms have not been disclosed.
"Not knowing how that was going to play out, we had to wait and see," Mr. Graham said.
Adirondack International Speedway opened in August 2001 with the running of the Empire 100. The track has annually held NASCAR divisional races, most recently the Camping World East Series sponsored by the Edge Hotel, run Aug. 1.
