Spare tires could spell end for Tom Nevers go-cart track
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Used tires lining the lanes of the go-cart track and piling up in nearby bushes, combined with disorganization among go-carters, will likely spell the end of this activity at the former Navy Base in Tom Nevers.

PETER B. BRACE/The Independent At its meeting tomorrow night, the Parks & Recreation Commission is expected to discuss the fate of this go-cart track, which may be converted into a BMX bike track.

Parks & Recreation Administrator Jimmy Manchester said tires were laid out several years ago to delineate the track's course. The additional tires people keep dumping out there are a health hazard, he said, and a burden to the Parks & Recreation Department, which has to haul them to the dump at a cost of $5 to $8 a tire.

"We're being instructed by the Health Department that we're going to have to get rid of all the tires because of the mosquitoes," said Manchester.

One of Health Inspector Richard Ray's pet peeves is used tires (along with myriad other open containers around the island) that collect rain water and provide breeding nurseries for mosquitoes that can carry West Nile virus, Easter Equine Encephalitis and malaria. Although some of the tires around the go-cart track are half-buried standing up, many more are lying on their sides along the track's dirt lanes and in large piles off to the sides of the track.

Manchester said there is no accountability for go-cart track users who do not have an organization that would set a schedule for use of the track, take responsibility for damage to town property and for accidents at the track. At its meeting tomorrow night, the Parks & Recreation Commission is expected to discuss the fate of the track, which Manchester said he would like to convert into a BMX bike track instead.

"We don't have an organization that looks after the go-cart track," said Manchester. "We don't organize

GO-CARTS GOING

Got something to say about the Parks & Recreation Commission's cleaning up of the go-cart track? The commission meets the second and fourth Thursday of each month at 6 p.m. in the conference room of the Town Annex building at 37 Washington St. Call 228-7213 for details. events; we let people organize events and structure them to [existing] schedules. It's a liability issue right now, and it's also a mosquito issue."

For all of the town properties that Parks & Recreation manages, including the former Navy Base, town beaches, playing fields, the park at Essex Road, Coffin Park and others, the department provides the space for activities, but does not manage them, leaving that up to whatever group uses the land on a regular, annual or seasonal basis.

With summer approaching, Manchester recommends that prospective users of the town's recreational properties get organized, generate a plan for use, provide their own insurance and then schedule a time with him to present the idea to the commission. With limited public land, and scores of activities and events vying for space, Manchester said that while he and the commission are working to secure new playing fields, they still manage to find times and places that work for all groups who apply to the commission for use of town property.

He cited the Demolition Derby in August and the new skateboard park behind the Muse as good examples of islanders coordinating with the commission.

"What we do in Parks and Recreation on Nantucket is provide the space as part of an organization and we try to schedule you in with other organizations," said Manchester. "It's trying to get people grouping together

because it works better." I