KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Five years after they were forced to move out of the home they shared for more than 50 years to make way for Kansas Speedway, Virginia and Howard Miller still bristle at the notion that their sacrifice was for the good of the community.

Stock cars will roar around the speedway this weekend at speeds approaching 180 mph in the Busch and Nextel Cup races, thrilling fans who paid hundreds of dollars to be there. Meanwhile, Virginia Miller plans to do her weekly baking while Howard works on the yard or tinkers with his fleet of antique trucks.

“I wouldn’t go to one of their races over there if they gave me the tickets,” Howard said.

In 1998, 146 residences and four businesses were forced out to make room for the $278 million speedway, which supporters said would bring in millions of dollars each year and spur an economic renaissance in a financially depressed area.

The track has met those expectations and more. Soon after the speedway was built, construction began a few miles east on Village West, a commercial development that includes retailers Nebraska Furniture Mart and Cabela’s, a waterpark-hotel and a new baseball stadium for the minor league Kansas City T-Bones.

But that doesn’t erase memories of several former residents who feel they were treated unfairly — and often, rudely — when the Wyandotte County Unified Government made them leave their homes for the benefit of private developers.

“They treated us like scum,” said Rex Morris, who used to live near where a big Village West sign is located just off Interstate 70. “They wanted to make an example out of me, and they did a pretty good job.”

Morris said he was in negotiations to sell his 8 1/2 acres of land for more than $1 million to someone who wanted to put a restaurant there before the speedway came along. Once the deal for the track went through, Morris said, those talks broke off and the woman with whom he had been dealing stopped returning his calls.

He was awarded $200,000 in court for his property and told to get out.

“I had my place all paid for, I was put on early retirement and I thought I was set,” Morris said.

Instead, he borrowed another $120,000 to build a dream home for his ailing wife on 5 1/2 acres in Leavenworth County.

Forced to sell

The Millers, both 80, say they are comfortable in their new home, which is about the same size as the one they had to leave in 1999.

But Virginia Miller says the new digs are no substitute for the 51 years of memories they left behind just north of Interstate 70, land on which a tourist information center now sits.

“We bought that eight acres with nothing on it when I came home from the Navy in 1946,” Howard Miller said. “We gave $1,800 for it with money that we saved while I was in the Navy. She worked at TWA, and I had all my pay sent home for her to keep. We had enough money saved to build a little house and buy that ground, and we didn’t owe nobody a dime.”

A few years later, they built a bigger house and rented out the smaller residence.

Then the interstate came through, and they were forced to part with a portion of their front yard. After that, they were forced to sell the smaller house to make way for the cloverleaf connecting I-70 and I-435.

The Millers said there also was no way to replace the friendships that evolved over several decades of living near the same families.

“Oh, sometimes you run into them and it’s just like old-home week. But it’s not like when we were sitting out on our porch and you stopped in and visited, you know,” Virginia said.

Values increase

Wyandotte County valuations have increased at least 10 percent a year since the track was built, which officials cite as proof that the speedway and Village West developments have been an economic boon.

“It was an unanimous decision by the elected body,” said Don Denney, spokesman for the Unified Government. “Today, to a person, they all said if they had to do it over again, they would. While it was a bitter pill for everybody to swallow, it has been the economic catalyst we were in desperate need of in this community.”

Denney said the county is issuing a record number of permits to construct single-family residences, and other economic indicators also point to the speedway being an overwhelming success.

“All of the money in the world can’t take the place of memories you build up in a residence over a period of years,” he said. “When you weigh the pros against the cons, I hate to think what this community would be right now if the decision wasn’t made to pursue the speedway.”