SKOWHEGAN — Bob Reisner and Denise Miller say the noise from the racetrack just up the hill from their Dudley Corner Road home has been unbearable for years, and many of their neighbors in the rural agricultural area agree.

The husband and wife have spent years urging the town do something. But as far as town officials are concerned, Get Er Done Raceway and Motorsports has not violated any ordinances.

So Reisner and Miller, who have lived since 2006 on the farm that has been in Reisner’s family for 56 years, have filed a complaint against the raceway’s landowner and its operator in Somerset County Superior Court.

“You are assaulting our property, and you are stealing the ability of us to live in our homes,” Reisner said about his noisy neighbors during an interview at his home.

Their lawsuit names the track’s landowner, Dennis Kinney, and the track’s operator, Steven Rackliff, as defendants.

Reisner and Miller are seeking a permanent injunction to stop the racetrack from operating races, mud runs and demolition derbies and from using its public address system. They are also asking the court to award an unspecified amount of compensatory damages, including for emotional distress.

The same day they filed the complaint a week ago, Superior Court Chief Justice Robert E. Mullen issued a temporary restraining order that effectively shut the operation down a week and a half before its season was set to begin.

Mullen wrote in his order that with jury selection scheduled to begin this week for the upcoming trial of Roland Flood, a Madison man charged with killing another man in 2023, he could not schedule a hearing until after the trial ends.

“Basically, we’re all just kind of dumbfounded how this gentleman (Reisner) can get right to Superior Court and have the place shut down immediately,” Rackliff said in an telephone interview. “That’s basically my business now. It was going to be my income as of next Sunday.”

Rackliff, who lives in Starks, said he’ll abide by the temporary order but hopes to challenge it. He said he was working on hiring a lawyer.

Kinney was traveling out of state due to a death in the family, so he was not available to discuss the lawsuit and had left it to Rackliff to begin legal proceedings for now, Rackliff said.

“Every town official says I did not break any violations or any codes or anything, and I have my licenses,” Rackliff said. “So, I don’t understand how this guy really has any chance at this other than slowing down the process of opening the track sooner than I want to, I guess. I guess that’s his main goal.”

‘OBNOXIOUS EAR-SPLITTING NOISE’

The lawsuit focuses on noise and other impacts like traffic, although it hints at a history of complaints directed to town officials and the town’s lack of ability to take action. The town is neither a defendant nor a named party-of-interest in the lawsuit.

The track “barrages” Reisner and Miller “with the obnoxious ear-splitting noise of unmuffled high-performance motor vehicles being operated at full throttle,” attorney Sigmund Schutz, of the Portland law firm Preti Flaherty, wrote in the complaint.

“The racetrack is in an otherwise peaceful and quiet residential and farming neighborhood. The racetrack’s noise is extremely loud and unrelenting with motorsports events lasting six hours or more, including races, practice runs and demolition derbies.”

Schutz also represents the Maine Trust Local News, the publisher of the Morning Sentinel and several other newspapers in Maine, in First Amendment and Freedom of Access matters.

The complaint further alleges the raceway draws traffic to Dudley Corner Road and attendees leave trash in the area, among other impacts, including groundwater contamination.

Both Reisner, an operating room nurse, and Miller, who is retired, said the noise has affected their mental and physical health. They said they dread Sunday race days as the weekend approaches.

Although the two are the only named plaintiffs, their court filings state they have the support of 20 neighbors and include seven sworn affidavits from neighbors who  say the noise has affected their ability to live in peace at their homes.

Neighbor Tim McFadden compared the noise to “fingernails on a chalk board all day,” “being stuck in a room with an alarm clock that won’t turn off” and “being trapped in a room with heavy metal music blaring all day long when I just want to relax.”

Another neighbor, Eric Coloumbe, wrote the noise affects his post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. “The operations at Get Er Done take away my peace at home, my sanity, and takes away my motivation to get things done,” he wrote.

“The noise from Get Er Done has made me feel like a hostage in my own home,” Maura Smith wrote in her affidavit, “because the incessant and loud noise takes away my freedom to enjoy peace and quiet.”

HISTORY OF COMPLAINTS

The track was used for harness racing as far back as the 1950s, according to the complaint; motor vehicle racing events started and stopped over several decades.

After a pause in 2023, track activity resumed in the fall of 2024, the lawsuit says.

Rackliff said that’s when he entered a lease agreement to operate the track; he was not involved much before last fall.

This is his first full year leasing the rack from Kinney, he said. Social media posts indicate he was planning to host races every Sunday from May through September.

Reisner and Miller’s lawsuit claims problems with the racetrack’s noise have been going on for years.

Reisner and others have complained to the town for years to regulate the racetrack under the town’s Site Plan Review Ordinance, as Skowhegan has no noise or zoning ordinances that would apply to what they see as a nuisance.

In November 2024, Code Enforcement Officer Bryan Belliveau was convinced and issued Kinney two notices of violation under Skowhegan’s Site Plan Review Ordinance. The violation stated the operation needed to apply for a permit.

But shortly after issuing the second notice, Belliveau dropped the case, according to records attached to the complaint. Belliveau wrote an email to Reisner that no sufficient evidence existed to pursue a violation and suggested the matter was a civil dispute.

That led Reisner to draft a new plea for town officials to take action. He said he spent the winter assembling binders of information for town officials to review and was hoping for a meeting.

But he and Miller said they never got that meeting. Instead, select board members met in a closed-door executive session on March 25 with attorney Andrew Hamilton of Eaton Peabody, meeting minutes show.

“We wanted them to hear our voices, see our faces, meet us,” Miller said. “It’s a lot different when you can have that person-to-person.”

Skowhegan Town Manager Dawn DiBlasi confirmed the March executive session was to discuss the raceway with Hamilton and ask questions about the town’s responsibilities.

“Mr. Reisner has been in here, and I’ve been sympathetic to him because I lived in a neighborhood where there was somebody who rode a dirt bike outside my window for hours on end. I felt really bad for him when he came in,” said DiBlasi, who is returning to her prior legal practice after submitting her resignation to the town earlier this month.

“But, speaking with the attorney, because Skowhegan has no zoning and no ordinances really to do with that, we believed, I think, that our hands were tied.”

Reisner said before taking the matter to court, he tried to contact Rackliff via electronic message and certified mail to let him know of his issues and potential for legal action ahead of the racing season.

Rackliff said he received those communications, but Kinney, the landowner, advised him it was best not to respond.

He said some of the allegations about Ger Er Done in the complaint are false.

The raceway is family-friendly, Rackliff said, and does not allow alcohol or drugs. The state fire marshal’s office has given it a permit, he said.

Rackliff said he paid $12,000 to lease the track this year and $10,000 a year for insurance.

A petition, not organized by Rackliff, has been circulating on social media supporting the racetrack operation. It had garnered more than 400 online signatures as of Tuesday.

“It made me feel a lot better,” Rackliff said. “I can see that there’s a lot of people in my corner now.”

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