July 1, 2009 in City

Track operator nearly current with county

• share
• email
• print

Spokane County expects to receive the last third of $30,000 by the end of the week that will cover monthly payments through July from racetrack operator Bucky Austin.

County officials will meet Monday with Austin and his staff about notices from contractors for past-due bills totaling more than $1 million for work done on the county-owned track. They will also try to determine whether a surety bond was obtained for the improvements, as required by the lease.

On Tuesday, Austin referred to allegations of missed payments as “malarkey” and contended that threats of liens by contractors are a standard billing tactic. Some of the work was only recently completed, he said.

“I don’t think I owe anybody over 45 or 50 days,” Austin said.

But an attorney for two of the major contractors at the racetrack, Winkler Concrete and T.W. Clark, disagreed. John Black said the bills from those companies averaged 60 days past due. Contractors hired him to file liens because they exhausted other avenues and were worried they wouldn’t get paid, he said.

The contractors have notified the county, which owns the racetrack, of those demands for payment. “This is the last thing they wanted to do,” Black said.

Austin made a lease payment to the county of $10,000 on June 24 to cover May, another Monday to cover June, and sent a third Tuesday to cover July. Because of a staffing change, he said, he was unaware that the payments were due on the first day of each month and hadn’t been sent but moved quickly to correct the problem once notified last week by the county.

County officials said they were unaware Monday that Austin’s May payment had arrived that day because it went to the courthouse, rather than the North Havana Street offices of the Parks Department, which handles the accounts for the racetrack. Although he was late with his May and June payments, the county will consider him current on his lease payments if it receives the other two payments by the end of the week, Parks Special Projects Manager John Bottelli said.

The county already has his second payment – staffers just need to look for it, Austin said. He sent it by FedEx to the same courthouse address as the first payment, and he has the tracking number to prove it. The third is going to the North Havana address, he added.

With the account current on the lease payments, county officials want to talk to Austin next week about surety bonds, which the lease agreement requires for any major work at the track, Chief Civil Deputy Prosecutor Jim Emacio said.

“Under the terms (of the lease) he was supposed to provide a copy of the performance bond to the county,” Emacio said. County staffers were required to review the terms of the bond to be sure that it was adequate for the project covered.

But the county has no bond documents on file and staff members “were not requested to review a surety bond” for work at the track, Emacio said.

If there was a bond, Black said, the contractors could seek payment through the bonding company, rather than filing liens against the improvements made on county-owned property. The county had a statutory responsibility to make sure that Austin had a bond, he added.

Austin insisted if bonds weren’t obtained, that was the responsibility of the prime contractor, T.W. Clark, which was managing the project and in charge of requirements set down by the county in its lease agreement.

“We didn’t have the expertise to do that,” Austin said.

• Story
• Comments 05

Five comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  RacerX on July 01 at 8:21 a.m.

  So whats up with the Oval Track?? here's some news to ponder,Why have the series circuit's that book there not been paid?? NW Modifieds was there till two in the morning and did not recieve payment at this past weekends events! Maybe the rumor mill should be investigated as it sure seems some good ol boys backscratchin is in place.yet doesnt include circle track Racing,

  Rumor has it among the circle track community that the 1/2 mile is in jeopardy of being closed down.the current manager in place being set up to fail,,hands tied,
  Is there any substance to the rumor,Is there any substance to a tale of that manager being chased off the property on foot by two big name managers in their personal vehicles?? And why may i ask that when the oval track host's an event,why is it that the people it brings in for said event and the concessions they puchase while at that event are not counted in the profit margin for that event??

  Are the quotes i've heard true? “As far as we are concerned we wish the Oval track would just dissapear” “I didnt get into this track to feed people or put a restaurant on it”

  It just gets better and i have way more.

  Flag as inappropriate

• 

  avboden on July 01 at 7:09 p.m.

  RacerX kindly shut your mouth(fingers?). All these are are RUMORS. The spokesman review has a MASSIVE BIAS against the track. These articles of late have all been negative and are full of holes.

  The track will do fine, just give it time. I went to the Rolling Thunder Big rigs and oval track races and the place was PACKED! WIth those sorts of crowds there is no way the oval will shut down.

  Flag as inappropriate

• 

  RacinaRound on July 03 at 10:17 a.m.

  Unfortunately avboden, most of these rumors are TRUE!

  Flag as inappropriate

• 

  RacinaRound on July 03 at 10:22 a.m.

  Let's just see what happens next week. You know, keep a good face on it to get all these racers and fans to pay their entry to a big race this weekend. Then drop the bomb on Monday. Guess we'll see.

  Flag as inappropriate

• 

  chuck on July 03 at 7:00 p.m.

  the circle manager was fired.maybe the paper should call him and get a straight story.maybe the county should odit the books and see if there is any foul play.all the money for improvement was spent on the drag side.the circle side was donated.

  Flag as inappropriate