THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 22, 1995 TAG: 9509220468
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MARTHA WAGGONER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ELM CITY LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
After seven years of getting nowhere with complaints about the noise from a racetrack next door, a retired farmer took the only action he thought was left to him:
Junior Medlin put up 11 security horns that blare a high-pitched, siren-like sound during races at the County Line Raceway.
Those horns, in turn, caused Medlin's neighbor to put up a donated 4-foot-by-8-foot sign that reads ``In My Opinion, World's Most Annoying Neighbor.'' The sign has an arrow pointing in the direction of the house with the sirens.
``Whenever he turns his noise on, I go out and uncover this sign,'' says James Richardson.
Medlin, 70, says the horns are his protest against racetrack noise. ``That's the only way I could get attention,'' he says. He complained to the sheriff's department and the governor about the racetrack but got nowhere.
In addition to the noise, Medlin has found trash in his yard, his mailbox vandalized and the lock broken off his electric meter on his side porch. He thinks race fans are responsible. He says the cars kick up so much mud that it coats his house with a fine, red dust.
``I have just quit trying to improve my property because it (the track) just runs it down,'' he says.
Medlin says he wants the track closed by 11 p.m. Saturdays; some car engines' muffled; and the harassment of him to stop.
``I just want them to make it so I can live there in peace,'' he says.
Medlin has lived in his house 28 years and within 500 yards of it since 1951. The racetrack opened in 1988 outside Elm City, a Wilson County town, population 1,651, about 45 miles east of Raleigh.
By this spring, Medlin had had enough, and spent about $750 installing the horns. He says their noise bounces the racetrack noise away from his house and back at the track. With the horns turned on, he can carry on a conversation in the house on Saturday nights. He says he can't when the horns aren't blaring.
Every Saturday night from April through September, weather permitting, about 1,500 to 2,000 people pile in at the 3/8-mile track to cheer for their favorite drivers in late model, super street, modified four, economy street, stock four and sportsman racing.
The track is owned by Edward and Carolyn Upchurch. Their three daughters, a son, a grandchild and some in-laws all work there. There's even a baby carrier that sits in the owners' box, where 10-week-old Austin, an Upchurch grandson, can watch the races.
Two of the daughters live in two houses just after the turn from N.C. Route 97 onto Stage Coach Road. Then there's a trailer and the Richardsons' house, which sits in front of the track. Past the track, behind a line of trees, is Medlin's home.
Carolyn Upchurch says the racetrack noise isn't so bad.
``If he went in his house and had his air conditioner and TV on,'' the noise wouldn't bother Medlin so much, she says. Some racetrack noise could still be heard, but ``it's not something he can't live with,'' she says.
She thinks it is Medlin's noise that is the problem: Some people leave races early because of it. ``They say they get tried of that blaring, deafening sound all afternoon.''
Richardson and his wife, Jan, say the racetrack noise doesn't bother them. ``I just carry on my life,'' says James Richardson.
Jan Richardson says the racetrack noise is more bearable than the horn noise because it's a dull, rather than a high-pitched, sound. ``You can cook out or you can sit out in your yard with no problems. But you cannot sit out in the yard'' when the horns are blaring, she says.
Medlin says he only blares the horns on race nights, although Carolyn Upchurch and the Richardsons say the horns are on some nights after the crowd has cleared out.
``When they don't disturb me, I don't disturb them because I've got respect even though they don't have no respect for me,'' Medlin says.
On Medlin's side in the dispute is neighbor Joyce Langston.
``He's the type of person who always does things right by the book, and he doesn't get in no kind of trouble,'' she says. ``He was just pushed to the point of aggravation that he felt like he had to do something.''
She says Medlin's house isn't livable on race nights because of the noise from the track. The horns improve the situation a little because they make the spectators, who she says used to hang out in the parking lot for hours after the race ended, head on home.
Medlin may have another recourse: Tax officials determined Wednesday that he actually lives in Wilson County, although he says he has paid taxes in Nash County for years.
That finding means Medlin will be able to use Wilson County's noise ordinance to fight the track, says Maj. J.G. Tant of the Wilson County Sheriff's Department. Both loud vehicles and the track's public address system would appear to violate the noise ordinance, Tant says.
The catch: Medlin - not the deputies - must take out the warrant, Tant says.
``I certainly do feel that Mr. Medlin does have a problem,'' Tant says. ``It's certainly got to be aggravating. I wouldn't want to put up with it, and nobody else would.''
Medlin, who doesn't have a telephone, could not be reached for comment Thursday on whether he will take advantage of the noise ordinance.
In an earlier interview at his house, Medlin said he won't move. ``No, ma'am. I am going to hold my ground,'' he says.
``I risked my life in Germany and France . . ., '' the World War II veteran says, unable to finish the thought because of tears welling in his eyes.
Richardson, however, says he and his wife will move within a month from the home they have rented for 14 years. ``I'm tired of his racket,'' he says.
Carolyn Upchurch says she sees no resolution. There are only a few more weekends left in the race season but she expects to be back in business in 1996. by CNB