Pottawatomie County homeowners hope noisy dirt bike track will quiet down

POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY, Okla. ( KFOR ) — Some Pottawatomie County homeowners are hoping the owner of a large dirt bike track will be willing to do something to quiet down noise created by the facility.

11 years ago, Amy Seckel was looking for one thing.

“Peace and quiet,” Seckel told News 4.

And when she came across a piece of property for sale just outside Tecumseh city limits in Pottawatomie county, she knew she found it.

“And I thought, well, this will be my last home. Retire and enjoy the country life.”

For the next nine years, she lived her quiet, rural dream.

That all changed within the last year or two, when a man bought a large piece of property close to her home and built a large dirt bike track on it.

“It’s like bumblebees or hornets all the time,” Seckel said. “When they’re racing and it’s high pitched loud. It gets quiet, then loud again, revving their engines.”

The track attracts dirt bikers from around the country. The property owner also built RV campgrounds on site for people visiting the track. The campgrounds back right up against nearby private homes.

That dream of a quiet country life is now a distant memory for Seckel and around 30 other nearby homeowners who all live within a quarter mile of the dirt bike track.

Others, who live even farther, can hear it too.

“I have friends that lived two miles that way that can hear it two miles south who can hear it,” Seckel said. “And everyone has the same statement. We hate it.”

Since they live outside city limits, there are no zoning laws. The county told her, technically, the man was within his right to build the track on his property without seeking special zoning.

“But who would have thought,” Seckel said. “Who would have thought that anyone would want to do that in a community?”

It’s why Seckel and her neighbors have a friendly request.

“I just want him to be a good neighbor and recognize that this is not what we like in our community,” Seckel said. “This is not what we’re used to.”

They’re hoping for a fence, or maybe a wall. They just want something to buffer the noise, and give them back, their quiet, country life.

“I just want people to know we’re not against what he’s doing,” she said. “We just… we’re very frustrated that no one cares and that no one seems concerned that it’s affecting so many people.”

News 4 reached out to the dirt track’s owner but did not hear back.

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