Rathit

DALLAS -- The way Bobby Williams tells it, his ranch on 100 acres of rural piney hills in East Texas was supposed to be a quiet way to enjoy retirement after a career in the insurance business.

But for years now, he has instead awakened to the roaring engines of all-terrain vehicles, midnight fireworks shows and thousands of drunken revelers who every so often gather across the narrow county road from his property outside Athens, at events called the Texas Redneck Games and the Texas Redneck Muddy Gras.

"We're just a nice, calm community, and nobody can get any rest; nobody can get any sleep,"says Williams, 76."We've got a problem, and I don't know what we're ever going to do to get rid of it. We need something to ban these things."

The latest event ended Sunday with more than 50 arrests and citations, and authorities said Wednesday that they're considering charges against the show's organizer.

The Redneck Games are modeled after similar games that have been going in Georgia for more than a decade. The four-day event took place about 70 miles southeast of Dallas and included an estimated 6,000 people, live music and competitions such as an ugly"butt-crack contest"and the"Mattress Chunk."

The goal in the mattress contest was for a team of two to drink a 12-pack of beer, get in a pickup and start driving, then climb into the bed and throw a mattress as far as possible.

By the time it was over, more than 54 arrests and citations had been issued on charges including public intoxication and speeding, according to the Henderson County Sheriff's Department. Officials are considering charges against the organizer and landowners where the event was held.

"I'm an old fuddy-duddy and all that, but you got a vehicle, you got alcohol and you got illegal dumping, and you're making a contest out of that?"said Lt. Pat McWilliams, spokesman for the Sheriff's Department."We are very fortunate that we didn't have a fatality."

McWilliams said the organizer, Oscar Still of Kilgore, could face a misdemeanor charge for not having a permit. Telephone calls to Still weren't immediately returned Wednesday.

Texas law requires a permit for any gathering of more than 2,500 people. McWilliams said Still didn't have one.

Adults had to pay an admission fee of $25 plus $15 for each ATV. Children got in free.

McWilliams said the misdemeanor is punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail.

He said it was less clear whether there was any wrongdoing by Garland Pool, owner of the 3,000-acre Pool Ranch ATV Park, a mix of sand, mud bog, prairie and forest where the events were held.

The Pool family is described by many as longtime residents of the area.

Pool, who lives about five miles from the ATV ranch, said he was aware of neighbor complaints but hadn't heard anything from the Sheriff's Department.

"Since I leased the property, I'm not in charge of whatever happens out there,"he said."Maybe the neighbors don't particularly like the traffic, but it seems like most of the businesses in town had a lot of success."

During the event, some two dozen Department of Public Safety troopers, a dozen agents with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, 38 sheriff's deputies and other local law officers were on hand at one point or another to maintain crowd control, McWilliams said.

On its Web site, the Redneck Games has a list of rules, including no underage drinking, a 10 mph speed limit and no fence cutting."Being a REDNECK is allowed. ... IGNORANCE is not,"according to rule No. 5.

There were other competitions, including one to see which guy could throw an engine starter the farthest and a"Daisy Duke Show-Off"for women in cutoff jeans. Cash prizes ranged from $40 to $200 per contest.

Williams said he and about 100 neighbors have started a petition to stop the gatherings. But as an inmate work detail picked up beer cans, bags of trash and hamburger wrappers across the street, he said he's not too optimistic.