Many of you have been wondering what is happening with the park, sorry for not updating until now but we haven't had much to tell you as we waited for the County to take action.

As many of you already know, the Martin County Board of County Commissioners approved the concept of providing land to the Martin County OHV Club in the form of a long term lease for the purpose of building an off road riding area and Motocross facility on Citrus blvd. in Indian Town.

Everything was moving along very nicely until we were ready to sign the lease with the county. Evidently the current zoning on the parcel of land was not correct for the use we proposed. The county would have to re-zone the parcel to meet our use. It would seem to be a simple thing to resolve since the County owns the property and does all zoning changes in house, however that was not the case. The decision to re-zone was made many months ago and as of today it still has not been done.

The reasons for this are unknown but we suspect the County personnel charged with moving this project forward are for some reason no longer motivated to do so. Possibly because they have heard rumblings of opposition from a single land owner adjacent to the site, or because they have moved on to other things and forgotten how much the people of Martin County want this to happen. In these troubled economic times it appears many in county government are jockeying for position and trying to keep their jobs. Unfortunately the tax payers are the real loser in this type of climate. We have been told numerous times that it is in the works and will take more time, but suspect the delays are more the result of personnel stretching out their work load to last as long as possible into the future. Recently we have started to go around our sources directly to the Growth Management department to see where the project stands. To our dismay we have been given the run around by County officials and come to find out that they will not even start the procedure until  late June when the Growth Management department has been able to finish other projects first. This is totally unacceptable to the citizens of Martin County and can not be tolerated. The County agreed to this project when it was politically expedient to do so but now that the people have become silent as they wait for progress, they  have put it on the back burner.

We must let the County know that if any opposition to this project arises during the zoning process, we have enough numbers and a loud enough voice to let the Commission know that the people want this facility and will not stand for it to be pushed to the back of the line anymore.

It has become too typical in today's local government for our elected officials to appear to be on the side of the people in a public forum but unable to actually move projects forward due to the waste and bureaucracy of government. It is time to take a stand and demand action.

The people have spent too many years waiting for the county to provide such a riding area. This project will have no financial impact on the county, it will be totally funded by the OHV Club and it's members, It will actually help the county manage property that they have no in house budget for, there is no excuse for them not to act now to allow this to move forward.

We are sorry that it has taken this long to come to this conclusion but only recently have we come to the realization that we have been given the run around, we must act now to put pressure on the County to move ahead with the rezoning so we can make this park a reality.

As we continue moving toward opening the track, the club is asking for everyone's help. We need your financial help and are asking everyone that rides and will benefit from this riding area to send in a $75.00 donation to the club. If you have already filled out a pledge form and sent it in, you are in our data base and will be contacted via email if we have urgent information, in the mean time keep checking back with this web site, it will be your best source for keeping up to date with progress and news. Your financial help is needed in order for the club to continue with the Site Plan process and for legal and other administrative costs. If you haven't already filled out a pledge form to get in our data base, you may do so now by clicking on the Pledge link.

Help spread the word, tell everyone you know about the Club and give them the web site address.

Thank you for your support