Council gives up on closed motocross dirt track

The City Council gave up on finding an operator for its closed-down motocross track Tuesday, with a vote rejecting a proposal from an interested party.

The city issued a request for a bid on the 50-acre Eldorado Valley motocross track in August, but received only one bid by the September due date.

The proposal, which came from Kristian Stokes, operator of the Sandy Valley MX motocross park in Sandy Valley, did not meet multiple requirements, according to the city.

The “most significant” requirement not met was for the operator to provide staffed private ambulances at the track during events, City Manager David Fraser said.

“We didn’t want our medical services being the primary services,” Fraser told the council.

Fire Chief Kevin Nicholson told the council in March that it was important for a future operator to provide its own paramedic services because transporting patients to Las Vegas takes a Boulder City rescue unit out of service for at least an hour.

The proposal also failed to meet a requirement that the new operator submit a cash bond of $100,000 before the execution of the agreement, according to the city.

After what the city considers the abandonment of the track by previous operator BCMX last year, it was left with more than $100,000 in cleanup costs, Public Works Director Scott Hansen said.

The bond was not a requirement for the previous operator, but was added to prevent the city from being stuck with cleanup costs again.

“They wouldn’t just be able to form an LLC and then leave us and leave us with a mess,” Hansen said.

Additionally, the proposal offered an annual lease payment of $600 per acre, much less than the annual $3,000 per acre paid by BCMX, according to the city.

“I think the bottom line is it’s just not a profitable business in Southern Nevada,” Hansen said. “Here in Southern Nevada there’s all sorts of free areas for people to ride and do their dirt biking.”

The council voted in February to terminate the lease with BCMX, which had not paid rent since July 2012.

In March, public works presented the council with the option of seeking a new bid or flattening the dirt course. The council voted to seek a bid rather than pay for a costly remediation.

A request for proposal was advertised in June, but the city received no interest.

At an August meeting, Hansen planned to advise the council that the track be razed to prevent the liability from people sneaking in to ride, an ongoing problem.

But shortly before the August meeting, the city received interest from two potential bidders who did not know about the initial June request for a proposal. The city then decided to advertise the second request for proposal.

Public works still recommends the council remediate the property, but officials say the money is not available. It is estimated to cost $30,000 just to bulldoze the course, and $70,000 for a full remediation.

“We don’t have any money budgeted to go in and flatten it,” Hansen said.

Additionally, a lawsuit involving an injury at the track is preventing the city from making any changes to the course, which could be considered evidence.

“We’re not clear to remediate the property because of some pending litigation,” Fraser said.

Public works goes to the track one or two times a week to repair the surrounding fence, which repeatedly becomes damaged from dirt bike riders sneaking onto the property, according to Hansen.