The Washington Parish Council meeting on July 11 was packed. Citizens and neighbors from Prentiss Miley Road filled the seats of the already small courthouse meeting room.
As the meeting began, the Parish Council led a vote passing Ordinance 22-713, which created Sales Tax District #3. Throughout the vote and discussion, the crowd remained silent and the meeting seemed to proceed as usual.
After the council moved on to the next item on the agenda, which was the discussion of a motocross track located along Prentiss Miley Road, the people in attendance at the meeting began to talk amongst themselves and raise their hands to speak before the council. (Prentiss Miley Road is on an Angie postal route, but it is located east of Pine off of Highway 436.)
The first person to speak on the subject that evening was Parish Attorney Wayne Kuhn. Mr. Kuhn explained that, "At a public meeting held on June 21st 2022 the planning commission took under consideration the issuance of a conditional use permit for a motocross track at 26360 Prentiss Miley Road, Angie, Louisiana."
During the June 21st meeting, "the presiding vice chairman asked for a motion from the commission… I advised the commission that they could either: 1) entertain a motion to deny a permit, or 2) entertain a motion to grant a conditional use permit… A motion was then made and seconded to grant a conditional use permit subject to conditions the commission would impose." However, after the conditions were made by the commission and a call for vote was made by the presiding vice chairman, the motion failed. After an appeal was made by the applicant, Mr. Benny Nixon, it became the Washington Parish Council's responsibility to decide on a verdict.
After Attorney Kuhn explained the situation to the council and the public, the council asked Mr. Nixon to explain his business and proposed plans for his motocross track. Mr. Nixon said that he is proposing to be open four days per month from 10 am to 4 pm. He further explained his proposal and listed some of the many rules he plans on enforcing to ensure everyone's safety.
District 6 Council member Reginald McMasters responded to Mr. Nixon's statement, saying, "For you to have a track, it is our duty to make sure that everybody is safe, the people of the community as well as you, the property owner… It's a possibility you might have to do more than you probably want to to protect your riders as well as the people driving up and down that highway. Are you willing to make those moves?" To which Mr. Nixon answered, "Yes sir."
After Mr. Nixon finished speaking, the council invited the public to share their opinions. The first person to the stand to speak was Ms. Newman, a resident of Prentiss Miley Road. Ms. Newman began her statement by saying, "Today, I and the vast majority of the Prentiss Miley Road community are asking you to please not give Mr. Nixon the permit to open this motocross track." Throughout the rest of Ms. Newman's statement, she explained that safety is not the only concern: "We also worry about the loud noise that this track will bring to our community."
Ms. Newman as well as several other concerned citizens explained that the highway which this new motocross track would be located on is extremely dangerous as it is very hilly and curvy. Both council members Rusty Fornea and Reginald McMasters responded to Ms. Newman's shared concerns. During McMasters' statement, he said, "I'm going to ask that we table this tonight, that this council will have time to look over for conditional use. Without this council putting in a permit for conditional use, what is gonna stop him from running his bikes everyday? You can't stop him from running his bikes cause it's his property."
Similar conversations continued for the next thirty minutes until the council decided to vote to return to the decision at the next meeting in order to give the council members time to visit the property and conduct their own research to be better prepared to vote.
After coming to the decision to return to the matter at the next meeting on July 25th, the council moved on to the president's report, followed by the financial report, which proceeded as usual. Once the reports were finished and council discussion had concluded for the evening, the July 11th Washington Parish Council meeting was adjourned
