Hydro Backers Look For A Sign Say They’ll Abandon Cda Efforts If Petition Filled

Signatures alone could forever sink boat racing on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

The Unlimited Racing Commission promises to abandon efforts to bring hydroplane racing to Lake Coeur d’Alene if opponents simply gather the 3,199 signatures necessary to put the issue before city voters.

“We would love to race there (but) we don’t want to go anywhere we’re not welcome,” said Bill Doner, head of the Seattle-based Racing Commission that oversees the sport.

He was reacting to an announcement Wednesday that Protect Our Lakes Association is starting drives in Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai County to permanently ban hydroplanes from all county lakes.

“You send me the petition with 3,100-something signatures from the community on it and I will write a letter saying we won’t come,” Doner said.

Once an issue like that goes to the voters, “only (the) nay-sayers are going to pound really hard-…so they are going to win,” he said.

Although hydroplane races clearly are off for this year, opponents say the initiatives are necessary because the hydroplane racing commission “wants to come to Coeur d’Alene in the worst way,” said Scott Reed of Protect Our Lakes.

Taking Doner at his word that the races won’t go where they aren’t welcome, “we want to send a clear message that they’re not wanted.”

“If they reject the initiative, that’s a clear message too - we’ll go find something else to do,” Reed said.

The racing revival effort dates to November, when Doner was in Coeur d’Alene for a hydroplane demonstration. That led to an intensive effort to get City Council approval of the races, which last ran here in 1968.

Local businessmen formed the Diamond Cup Association to put Coeur d’Alene on the racing circuit. The Diamond Cup group withdrew its proposal last week, saying a lack of time and the threat of litigation made this year’s effort impossible.

Doner blames negative publicity, and The Spokesman-Review, for the sinking hydroplanes.

“I never dreamed boat racing would become editorial page material,” he said.

The Racing Commission will try to sell New York City the Labor Day weekend time slot that was favored for Coeur d’Alene, Doner said. His group is not interested in Sandpoint, a rumored alternative, because it is too remote.

Protect Our Lakes is developing two separate initiatives, one to ban hydroplanes in the city and one to ban them in the county. The initiative affects only the larger, jet-powered boats and doesn’t regulate the smaller hydroplanes that are raced on Spirit Lake.

Once the initiatives are approved by the city clerk and the county clerk, the group has 60 days to gather enough signatures to put the question before voters.

It will take 3,199 signatures to put the measure on the city ballot and 6,059 to make the county ballot, said Reed of Protect Our Lakes. The group is aiming for the May 28 primary election.

Roger Evans, director of emergency services at Kootenai Medical Center, was at the Protect Our Lakes press conference to warn people that his experience with hydroplane races in the Tri-Cities was negative.

Evans was at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Pasco from 1976 to 1987. The crowds that came to see hydroplane races in those days were using alcohol and drugs that “altered their behavior, altered their social skills,” Evans said. “A crowd like that coming into a city like ours carries a tremendous impact.”

Given his personal experience, Evans stepped forward because he wants people to know “if the community chooses to bring the races here, they need to begin planning now for the safety and welfare and budget now for the cost impact.”

The Tri-Cities Water Follies Association, which is responsible for the races in the Richland, Kennewick and Pasco area, acknowledges there were widespread problems until seven years ago. More intensive crowd control combined with tightly supervised alcohol consumption have changed that, the association said.

Barb Kolever, of Kennewick General Hospital, says those changes have significantly reduced the number of injuries treated by the first aid stations that her hospital oversees at the races. The hospital covers the costs itself.

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