Citizen complaints about late night noise from the dragway last season — apparently after circumstances caused one night’s events to run much later than usual — prompted the Person County Sheriff’s Department to take a closer look at the county’s noise ordinance.

Sheriff Dewey Jones informed the Person Board of County Commissioners earlier this month that the existing ordinance did not address sounds from racetracks such as the dragway so it was his department’s interpretation that noise from the track after hours technically violated the ordinance. Jones indicated that neither law enforcement nor the complaining citizens wanted to close down the dragway. He suggested there should be some mutual accommodation for the track to operate with sensitivity for the neighborhood.

Jones’s comments came on March 10 in connection with Roxboro Dragway’s petition for an amendment to the noise ordinance to allow the dragway to operate during certain hours on specific days. Wells King, attorney for dragway owners Henry Martin and Jerry Martin, made the formal presentation requesting the amendment, pointing out that the dragway had been in operation off U.S. 158 East for more than three decades, that it is a business that provides jobs and also stimulates the county’s economy by attracting drag racing fans who spend money while here.

Commissioners agreed at the earlier meeting to amend the ordinance but directed County Attorney Ron Aycock and King to confer and return with an amendment spelling out the specific hours for commissioners’ consideration.

Aycock advised earlier that any amendment would have to address racetracks generally so as to treat all such operations equally as opposed to singling out Roxboro Dragway.

Nonetheless, the amendment presented to commissioners Tuesday was effectively tailored to suit the Roxboro Dragway request insofar as the days and times within which automotive racetrack noise is exempt from the ordinance coincide with Roxboro Dragway’s desired hours of operation, thereby seemingly limiting any other auto racetrack to those same hours.

Additionally on Tuesday, King, on behalf of the dragway owners, asked for one additional window of operation for the dragway, that being the third Thursday in October to coincide with an annual Vance County event honoring the memory of the late Ronnie Sox, a Vance County native considered the 15th best professional drag racer in the world. Sox died in 2006.

Commissioners agreed to add that particular date within the allowable hours of operation specified in the amended ordinance.

The amendment passed unanimously Tuesday.

Commissioner Kyle Puryear wondered if the language of the amendment would apply the same hours to any other racetrack that opened in the county.

County Manager Steve Carpenter, noting that Roxboro Dragway existed long before county zoning, speculated that any new racetrack likely would require a special use permit under existing zoning regulations. He said in granting such a permit, the county could stipulate certain conditions for operation of the new racetrack, including hours of operation.

In accordance with the change approved Tuesday, Roxboro Dragway may operate exempt from the noise ordinance on:

• Wednesdays from 12:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

• Fridays from noon to midnight, provided however on the last Friday of each month the ending time shall be extended to 1 a.m.

• Saturdays from noon to midnight.

• Sundays from 12:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

• The third Thursday in October from 12:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.