Despite a lot of opposition, Cleveland City Council members passed a $2.3 million dirt bike track proposal Monday night with a vote of nine to seven.
Tracks will be coming to the southeast side of the city in the Garden Valley neighborhood.
“We spend $2.3 million on a dirt bike track,” said Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed.
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Voicing his frustrations, Monday night Reed made it clear he doesn’t support council’s decision to build a multi-million dollar dirt bike track in the city.
“A track, I can almost guarantee you, no one in this room is going to go to. Nobody,” Reed said.
It’s money Reed would rather spend on the city’s police department.
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“Two-point-three million dollars on a dirt bike track, while little babies this weekend got shot on our streets. We buy dirt bike tracks,” he said.
Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland sponsored the legislation. She represents Ward 5, which is where the tracks will go. She said transforming the park won’t take away from funding first responders.
“This was money already set aside,” Cleveland said.
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Cleveland called the park a program that keeps kids busy. The goal is to get illegal dirt bike and ATV riders off city streets and give them a place to ride.
“Get young people off the streets and redirect (them) into something positive, that’s what this is,” Cleveland said.
The project will transform Marion Motley Park. It’ll be the only dirt bike track of its kind around.
“You need to start with something and it needs to be original. We will be the only city in the northeast part of the country that will have a facility like this,” said Ward 15 Councilman Matt Zone.
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Despite the originality, some said the city shouldn’t add on more projects because it struggles to maintain the spots it already has.
“We’re good at building things, but we can’t maintain anything,” said Ward 8 Councilman Michael Polensek. “It’s not about that dirt track, it’s about common sense and the way we operate here.”
Cleveland said the funds that will be used to pay for the tracks was money set aside to change the face of the Kinsman Avenue area.
The city will also pay to have a contract with a vendor and $50,000 for a consultant.
For those who live near the area where the tracks will go, the City of Cleveland said the park was tested for potential noise. Ten dirt bikes were revved up at once and there was only minor noise heard on one street.
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