Shooting range controversy reloads

KNIK-FAIRVIEW — The would-be operator of a youth-focused shooting range says plans to move to a third location in about a year won’t jeopardize safety at a relatively nearby school.

Mat-Su Borough School District officials, including School Safety and Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Joe Schmidt, agreed.

“There’s not enough of a concern for us to get involved here,” he said.

The range is the pet project of Alaska Scholastic Clay Target Program President Neil Moss, who’s worked to obtain borough land for the project for almost two years. Moss volunteers with local juvenile clay target shooters, many of whom face long commutes and expense to obtain access to appropriate target shooting ranges in the Valley. Moss routinely uses a white school bus to transport students to more distant public ranges to avoid the more expensive private ranges. Previous efforts to establish a shooting range first in Big Lake and then near Church and Pittman roads in Wasilla drew active opposition from local residents, which ultimately defeated the range at those locations.

Moss’s range was also up for a $150,000 money grant from the borough to buy land. Borough mayor Larry DeVilbiss vetoed the measure, the only one of six vetoes sustained at the tail end of budget negotiations this year.

The latest potential location for the range is a 240-acre parcel off Knik-Goose Bay Road near the intersection of Carmel Road and Whitnni Street.

Local resident Clay Chapman — a nearby road bears his name — said he worries about safety, and about desensitizing the students of nearby Joe Redington Jr./Sr. High School.

“When you have a (school district) superintendent that’s more interested in 50 students shooting at the shooting range when they’re already going to two shooting ranges in the Valley, you think you’d be marching down to the borough (to) say ‘Hey! My children come first, not the shooting range,’” he said.

He said the project desensitizes children and staff to guns.

Chapman and Moss disagree on nearly every aspect of the range. Chapman says the range is about one-eighth of a mile from the school campus. Moss said borough officials measure the distance as three-fourths of a mile distant, which he rounds up to a mile. Borough aerial photography shows the planned area for the range is at least half a mile a way, and on the far side of a ridge.

The planned hours of operation for the range likely encompass a narrow band of time between when school gets out and student-athletes go home, Moss said. The range also won’t be open for public use, and they plan to bar access to the range using a gate across the nearest traversable road. The nearest property owner is Kenneth Hunter, and Moss said he planned to work with Hunter to improve access to the area planned for the range.

Demand for the land is high, Moss said. The clay target program plans to expand into the middle school level as early as next year, Moss added.

“Right now there’s four high school teams, and one team that’s everyone else,” he said.

The total appraised value of the land is $349,900, according to borough property tax records, and range supporters intend to purchase the land for sale at less than fair market value, though how much less is subject to debate.

DeVilbiss said he’d save his comments for the assembly table.

“Since I get the last word, I’m not going to rush to give the first word,” he said.

Assemblyman Dan Mayfield, a visible opponent to the range’s original Big Lake plan, said he was waiting to measure opposition to the new location before deciding how to cast his vote.

“There’s been some opposition to that land sale,” he said. “I’m waiting to see where that opposition goes.”

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.