Hydroplane Plan Destined To Sink

A plan to race hydroplanes on Lake Coeur d’Alene this summer sank for one reason only: Coeur d’Alene residents didn’t want the races. Anyone who thinks otherwise - race promoter John McGruder, for example - either is deluded or is trying to salve a bruised ego.

In announcing the decision last week to drop plans for an unlimited hydroplane race, McGruder blamed potential litigation and “the same group that derails everything as far as anything to do with the city.”

There was no pending litigation - although the promoters of this fast-track scheme likely faced a referendum in May and sympathetic City Council members risked a recall effort. In reality, the proposal had little public support beyond the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce, businessman Duane Hagadone, a couple of Spokane radio talk-show hosts and a local beer distributor.

Significantly, several key Coeur d’Alene businessmen quietly distanced themselves from the hydroplane proposal - though it did have a chance of winning a split council vote after Hagadone personally pressured members.

Promoters did the pro-business council a favor by tabling the matter. Council approval - when constituent calls were running so heavily against the races - would have fractured Coeur d’Alene and possibly ended local political careers.

Hydroplane-race backers should have known better than to try the same tactics that failed them 10 years ago. Again, they demanded quick approval, held private meetings, propagandized through the Hagadone-owned Coeur d’Alene Press, objected to a public vote, and treated the waterfront and Tubbs Hill cavalierly.

They would have been swamped at the polls again, as they were in 1985 when a record voter turnout braved a snowstorm to vote 3-to-1 against hydroplane racing.

Many Coeur d’Alene residents do agree with a speech Hagadone made to Coeur d’Alene Realtors this month, arguing the community could use an economic shot in the arm. But they disagree that a hydroplane race is the best way to provide it. Rather, they feared justifiably that 25,000 to 50,000 race fans, looking for a place to party, would swamp downtown Coeur d’Alene and the waterfront.

The energy spent beating this twice-dead horse should be channeled toward finding a major event the community will support. Or a series of smaller events oriented toward the arts, like Coeur d’Alene’s successful Art on the Green.

Sandpoint has its festival. Ashland has its Shakespeare. Coeur d’Alene, with its picturesque waterfront setting, should have something.

But not hydroplanes.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board