Forum: Oklahomatidbits.com General Forum (go)
Moderators:  /  David Smith Jr

Oklahoma City --Yesterday, August 4, Midwest Demolition had about three piece of equipment on site. A small pile of interior rubble is on the south side where Performance Electric had their shop. A mangled filing cabinet and an old copier were heaped next to the Grandstand box office. One window of the boardroom had a perfect baseball-sized hole in it. Most all of the electical wires have been cut and are laying on the ground. The pit pass gate house is gone. Otherwise, Fairgrounds Speedway looks virtually unscathed.

This morning, August 5, a handful of the professional vandals who work for Midwest were on site. They were trying to use a claw on a tractor to tear at the steel cladding on the north side of the Grandstand. The cladding bent a little and all they did was expose a massive reinforced concrete beam. It seemed like maybe the old girl was going to put up a fight. Too little, too late.

I saw no evidence, yet, of any salvaging of useable materials (as is required in the lie-packed city council resolution).

Usually, when sports stadiums are destroyed, there's a big auction so that fans and players can buy a souvenir or two. For example, when they tore down the Seattle Kingdome and Cleveland Stadium, they even sold the toilets! When Clay Bennett's inlaws helped fund a renovation of Memorial Stadium at Owen Field (in exchange for getting their fetid name plastered all over it), I recall getting solicited to buy a section of old bleachers they removed. During the Gallager-Iba expansion, they carefully preserved all the bricks removed for later sale to alumni. But apparently in the bloodlust of hypocrite Clay Bennett, his puppet Tim O'Toole, neighborhood crusader Ann Simank, and that mendacious, teleprompter-reading idiot Mick Cornett, they can't even delay their demolition scheme long enough to allow souvenirs or salvage.

I plan to make a daily photographic record of the wasteful travesty that has befallen historic Fairgrounds Speedway (although some jerk with Public Works Department wanted to intimidate me . . . I guess they don't want any witnesses). I don't know what I'll do with the photos, but this myopic and grotesque waste of a historic public facility should be chronicled in its infamy.

I'll probably tie a greasy shop rag to the construction fence (sort of like they did after the Murrah bombing) and watch how long it stays before one of Tim O'Toole's henchmen rips it down.

And after Clay Bennett's lackeys finish their evil deed, I'll brush the dust of Fair Park off of my shoes and I'll plan to NEVER set foot there again!

you said it better than me. I workacross the street. all you could smell one day was horse shit. maybe the neighbors will like continuous horse shit smell better than 3 hours a week of racing noise. with all the horse activities they have there I think its going to be one BIG pile of shit.

Post away and keep us updated. Yes, mjm went up there Monday and was harrassed and told to leave or he would be arrested for tresspassing. A public city venue and you get told this. Not good and glad it wasn't me or the feller might have been called out so I could catch his bluff.

I, too, recommend NOBODY sets foot on the fairgrounds EXCEPT for Greg Deatherage's annual OKC Trade Show and Auction. That has to do with our racing and he needs our support. That is support for him, NOT Fairgrounds Speedway (once again, take this state fair speedway crap and shove it up your arse).

Each public venue where Cornett or the other cronies are at, yell, boo, curse or whatever to remind those the race fans are still around and will be forever and they will be reminded they screwed up. I would even throw ice chunks at them and duck down a tunnel.

This is one of the contrasts I was talking about in Oklahoma compared to states like Kansas and Nebraska. There, fairgrounds embrace dirt track racing and just about every county in western Kansas had their little fairs WITH dirt track racing at least on one of those fair nights. The Fairgrounds at Wakeeney put money into their grandstands and the Kansas State Fairgrounds in Hutch spent milllions renovating their grandstands to make sure everything was compliant. All for racing maybe three or four times a year. But they also hold it for outdoor concerts during the fair and other activities. OKC fairgrounds just don't get it - and they never will.

Thank you again for the updates, keep them going.

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

David

When we were trying to save the fairgrounds. We were told by the city that the fairgrounds were private unless your attending an event there then it is public.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands 
in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he 
stands at times of challenge and controversy." 
Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Erich Petersen 

Watching the demolition of the fairgrounds grandstands is an event -a very sad one -THUS that makes it a public event.

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

I agree with you. Just given the legalize that they gave us.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands 
in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he 
stands at times of challenge and controversy." 
Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Erich Petersen 

Noon update:

The Midwest vandals are breaking up and tearing out the wooden bleachers on the upper north side (sorry I don't have the section numbers). They're throwing (not stacking) the wood in a large, haphazard pile on the mezzanine aisle. One "worker" was just standing at the top, starring out at the parking lot (typical for government work).

Down at the box office area, one worker was trying to tear off the tall chain-link gate with his bare hands. Another was looking at a Bobcat loader. A residential-size AC condenser/compressor or two had been loaded on a flatbed trailer. (The compressors look similar to the old ones that the "consultants" criticized for being abandoned on top of the offices). Some brown enclosures (maybe amplifiers or other audio equipment) were stacked on the ground.

The scrap pile next to Performance Electric's former bay is about 50% bigger.

Still no apparent plan for salvaging anything.

If they try to mess with me, they'll be paying me Charles Thompson money! (http://www.newsok.com/former-ou-quarterback-charles-thompson-reaches-settlement-with-oklahoma-city/article/3482274)

It should be noted that the people from Midwest are not the bad guys here. Uncle A and I did a walk through today with the contractor and they are being very helpful to try and accomodate us in obtaining souveniers. They have a job to do and a very short time to do it and I appreciate their willingness to work with us on this. Thats all i'm saying on this for now.

News channel 4 was there and the story should air tonight at either 5 or 6 they said.

"They're steering them sum bi***es with their right 
foot!"

Personally, I know they have a job to do and no they aren't the bad guys and are paid to get it done in a timely matter. Unfortunately though, when your afflitliated directly or indirectly with the city or the fairgrounds you may hear some things as we are all disgrutled.

I HATE you Mick and O'Toole and may all of this come back on you two-fold.

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

This was a 'con job' in the interest to profit. Never forget.

Not to be critical of Uncle A or SFSfan or any other volunteers who can hold their noses and deal with Cornett/Bennett's for-profit "execution squad," but the souvenir salvaging operation doesn't look very organized. For example, I didn't see any organized loading of salvage materials or any big trucks to carry them away to safety.

Moreover, one could argue that setting aside a few souvenirs for "insiders" and not preserving a sufficient quantity so that hundreds of Fairgrounds Speedway fans (many of which don't even realize the demolition has begun) will have a fair opportunity in the future to obtain personal momentos is totally inadequate. (Obviously I'm not on the list to get squat)

I'm not saying that it's Uncle A or SFSfan's fault. It's the CITY'S FAULT FOR RUSHING THE DEMOLITION AND NOT HAVING A REASONABLE SALVAGE PLAN!

And the way I read the bogus City Counsel resolution, anything that could possibly be used for a future speedway is supposed to be inventoried and stored away. From what I've seen thus far, the Cornett/Bennett for-profit wrecking crew isn't doing much to preserve anything.

(But then a future OKC speedway is about as likely to happen as: (a) Ann Simank winning Miss America, (b) Clay Bennett giving up lying, (c) everyone loving and agreeing with Lanny, or (d) Mick Cornett growing a brain . . . and even if lightning DOES strike and the waters of the $60 Million "Oklahoma River" part, the now-mythical new OKC Speedway will be some cheap, substandard "erector set" grandstand cobbled together in an out-of-the-way locale.)

Anyone who would have bid on this job is a soulless profiteer in my book, regardless of how "nice" they act. And anyone who works for the winning bidder on such a disgusting waste of public resources and tradition places personal gain over civic duty and integrity. So, I'm saying if one is profiting from doing the "bad guys" work (even as an hourly hand), then ONE IS AMONG THE "BAD GUYS!"

I have lost all faith in our City Government. There is something terribly wrong when the City is paying more for the demolition of the speedway than to fix the so-called electrical problem. It just goes to show us that they, Clay Bennet, State Fair Board, the City Council and all the other different hooligans and special interest groups didn't want the speedway. Now they can erect a Mick Cornett and Clay Bennet memorial statue that says "Look At The Landmark That We Destroyed".

And I know where there's plenty of HORSE POOP to make the statue out of.

Boycott, I posted here on Tidbits that I was working with the City and the Demo Contractor and asked for request. I have received about 500 request from people.

I'm sorry if you feel left out, all you have to do is send me an e-mail [email protected] with your request. The City and Demo Contractor do not want 100's of people on site because of liabilities, so it was agreed that myself and a small crew of people would remove the items and SFSfan has been gracious enough to offer Mr. Pickup (809 S. Agnew) as a distribution center.

I am just as pissed off with the Mayor and his cronies for taking our beloved track. Don't get me started there. All I'm trying to do is make sure everybody gets something from the track.

Uncle A, my point is not about how I personally was left out. It was about how the rush to demolition means that the vast majority of salvageable materials will be lost.

As for my personal request . . . I'll take a few pieces of that "dangerous electrical system," a pickup load of bleacher wood and any signs and bricks that aren't spoken for . . . . (I'll send an e-mail).

BTW, where are they going to haul the rubble that's not salvage? What's going to happen to the cladding and metal fencing? What's going to happen to the miles of chain link?

FRIDAY A.M. (August 5, 2010) DEMOLITION UPDATE:

There were more workers on-site. One worker appeared to be warming up one of the big Komatsu demolition machines.

(Here's a serious irony -- the Grandstand was built and paid for by hardworking, sacrificial Americans -- war-hardened veterans who grew up in the privation of the Great Depression and who fought the godless aggression of Imperial Japan during World War II. And it was baptized in the blood, sweat and tears of generations of hard-charging American racers. Now its going to be quickly destroyed by a Japanese machine at the behest of a stupid cadre of Toyota-sponsored rich elites. And somehow that's progress?)

While one worker lounged on one of the wooden bleacher seats under the press box, several more were breaking up the wooden bleachers with sledgehammers (no attempt to salvage anything here). The pile on the mezzanine aisle is gone, replaced by a giant bonfire-sized heap North of the Grandstand. (I couldn't get good photos because of the backlighting and fencing). They appeared to be about halfway through the upper section.

A low-level Fair Park worker appeared to be shooting some video of the Western facade of the Grandstand with a cheap camcorder. I guess he wanted to remember how things used to be before the brain-dead Cornett/Simank/Bennett cabal gutted dirt racing in central Oklahoma. I truly felt sorry for this guy. He's chosen to work for that scurvy "tool" Tim O'Toole. Life is too short for anyone to have to do that!

They're tearing it down now, so the thousands of possible bleeding hearts that enter the fair won't see the danger of it being gone. It will already be.

Those that do this, know there is a weakness, that is why they move fast.

August 9 AM Demoliton Update:

Salvage efforts made a small dent in the debris piles Friday Afternoon (Thanks Uncle A & crew).

This morning, a Bobcat tore at the t-shirt counter area. I couldn't help but think of all the racers who collected their winnings at that counter after another hard-fought Friday night of racing.

A section of windows from the office area had been removed and debris dangled from the gaping hole toward a large pile below.

Some of the doors on the front hang raggedly, having been broken open. One of the ticket windows is now smashed.

A small pile of broken bricks lay north of the ticket windows.

On the south side, at the monorail landing, another debris pile has appeared. It looks to contain materials from the Grandstand South Concession stand.

The welded blue folding-type seating from the lower level appears to be gone. Only the aluminum chair seats in the lower center section remain.

A crane was outside of Turn 3 (3/8 mile) preparing to remove one of the light poles. (Oddly enough, track lighting was one of the justifications that the consulting hacks at Guernsey HOK Sport used to trash the facility (Grandstand Assessment at Page 50). Yet it may be one of the few things that is salvaged from the demolition.

Most of the inside signs are gone, except some billboards on the front stretch and the big O'Reilly's sign on the backstretch. The Toyota signs, along with all of the upper billboards on the west side of the grandstand remain.

I was there Friday afternoon and I was amazed that the grandstand was still, from a visual standpoint, still holding on structurally. I was with Sfsfan and he made a comment that went like well you know where you would want to be in a tornado.

Some of the others Friday afternoon were taking the numbers down that went with the box seat sections. Some of the numbers came down easy as they were put up with aluminium rivets.While others still had the steel rivets with them and they did not want to come off as easy. The aluminium seats also did not want to come easily as well.

The aluminium bleachers were no where to be seen. I guess someone had already came in and took them out before we got there on Friday. I have a few ideas where they might be.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands 
in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he 
stands at times of challenge and controversy." 
Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Erich Petersen