Motorcycle school gets OK to use old DeLand runway

BEACON PHOTO/BARB SHEPHERD
Watching Dad — Joshua Smith, 5, and Jacob Smith, 7, watch as the wheels of local government turn in their father’s favor at the DeLand City Commission meeting Jan. 4. Dad Jeff Smith of DeLand was appealing to the City Commission to use part of an abandoned runway on the DeLand Municipal Airport for his motorcycle-training school. Commissioners voted unanimously to give him permission to do so, on a trial basis. The boys watched the action from the audience in the company of their grandparents, Carol and Wayne Smith.

By Barb Shepherd
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Jan 7, 2010 - 12:46:02pm

A crumbling, abandoned runway is one of the City of DeLand’s most popular properties on the DeLand Municipal Airport.

A group called Elite Bikers uses it for motorcycling events. The DeLand Radio Control Club and an automotive club also rent the runway. The city charges $300 a day for its use.

So, when Jeff Smith of DeLand approached city officials about renting the runway for motorcycle-training classes, he was told a fourth user would be too much.

Smith appealed to the City Commission. After he pleaded his case at the Jan. 4 meeting, commissioners voted unanimously to grant permission for Smith’s Adventure Rider Training school to hold classes on the runway, on a trial basis.

Smith said he would bear the burden of working out any scheduling conflicts with the other groups. He also offered to clean up the area and provide at least $1 million worth of liability insurance.

Smith told city commissioners they would be contributing to highway safety by making room on the airport for the training classes.

He said motorcyclists are the only road-user demographic experiencing an increase in fatalities. In an attempt to stem that trend, Smith said, as of 2008 the state made training classes mandatory for anyone seeking a license to ride a motorcycle of 250 cc or larger.

“There is a clear need to increase motorcycle training,” Smith said.

The problem is finding locations to hold such classes. A stretch of unobstructed asphalt 200 feet wide and 300 feet long is required.

Adventure Rider Training used to use the driver-education course at DeLand High School, he said, but that area is now occupied by portable classrooms.

Smith’s classes would have a dozen students training for a total of 15 hours each on street-legal, fully muffled 250 cc motorcycles. He noted the students would patronize DeLand businesses while in the city for class.

City Manager Michael Pleus sought reassurance that city staff members would not be roped into solving scheduling conflicts for use of the runway, or called upon to settle arguments about whether the various groups cleaned up after themselves satisfactorily.

“We cannot be expending city resources to work out conflicts between all these events in a space that’s not really supposed to be an event space,” Pleus said.

City Public Services Director Keith Riger also spoke to commissioners about his concerns about the condition of the runway.

“The pavement condition out there is abominable,” Riger said. “Who’s going to repave that?”

Smith said the condition of the runway would not impede his classes, but that a representative with the Florida Rider Training Program will have to inspect and OK the site.

Commissioners agreed that, in the long run, they will need to make policy decisions about how the old runway is used and how much money to spend, if any, on its maintenance.

They emphasized that their approval of the motorcycle-training classes is on a temporary, trial basis. The vote was 4-to-0 to allow the classes. Commissioner Willie Bright was absent from the meeting.

— info@beacononlinenews.com

Reader Comments

The comments posted below are posted by readers, not by The Beacon staff. These comments express the views and opinions of the authors, and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster. The comments forum is governed by these rules. Please use the report abuse link if you find offensive comments.

Comment on this article

Commenting is closed for this article.

If you would like to contribute a letter to the editor, please click here.

Did you find this story interesting or informative? Subscribe to The DeLand-Deltona Beacon to read more stories by Barb Shepherd, along with others from our award-winning writers. Subscribe now!