Look Beyond Hydroplane Hype

Hagadone Hospitality’s fingerprints are all over an attempt to bring unlimited hydroplane racing back to Lake Coeur d’Alene - along with large crowds and ESPN cameras.

First, national racing commissioner Bill Doner from Kent, Wash., brings the matter before the City Council on election night, eliminating any chance that his controversial proposal could become a campaign issue as it did 10 years ago.

Then, businessman Duane Hagadone’s newspaper, the Coeur d’Alene Press, blatantly promotes hydroplane racing on its front page, in its sports columns and editorials, and by conducting unscientific phone-in polls as it did 10 years ago.

Fortunately, veteran council members Ron Edinger and Dixie Reid saw through the charade, remembered the overwhelming 1985 advisory vote against hydroplane races and urged caution. Ten years ago, Edinger and Reid were ready to vote for the thunderboats until former Mayor Jim Fromm cast a dramatic tie-breaker to put the matter before the people.

To their credit, Edinger and Reid still respect the community’s record turnout and overwhelming vote against hydroplane racing - 3,384 to 1,172.

The Coeur d’Alene City Council had better be dead certain that the community has changed its mind before succumbing to the hype for hydroplanes generated by Hagadone’s newspaper and sympathetic allies in the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce.

The only way to make sure how the community feels today is to conduct another advisory vote. Not a poll. Polls are too easy to manipulate. Doner, for example, told the council that nine out of 10 people he polled Tuesday supported hydroplane racing. (He must have talked only to those who braved cold weather to watch an unlimited hydroplane break down after half a lap.)

Doner, of course, is against another advisory vote.

In 1985, Coeur d’Alene so opposed hydroplanes, as a result of the unruly crowds at the 1960s Diamond Cup races, that political unknown Ray Andreasen almost won a council seat campaigning against them.

But who knows? Maybe the community now is willing to embrace the races. The greater Coeur d’Alene area needs a tourist attraction to help fill the void that will be left when Coeur d’Alene Greyhound Park closes.

On the other hand, residents might not want their popular waterfront roped off for an entire weekend. And they might not be sure that crowds in the violent ‘90s are saner than those of the psychedelic ‘60s.

Coeur d’Alene has too much at stake to blindly embrace an attempt to skirt the public’s clearly stated will.

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