Shooting range still a target

WASILLA — Though it has passed the planning commission, the fight over plans for a possible shooting range near the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center isn’t over.

Mayor Verne Rupright said that right now the city is waiting to see if a group of residents opposed to the plan file an appeal of the opinion the commission issued May 11. At this point, that would be an appeal of an appeal. The May 11 decision came after the first decision was appealed and a hearing officer sided with the city while expressing a few reservations about noise and other issues.

After the appeal, Rupright said, those opposed to the range near the sports center have yet another remedy — judicial review. Which means the disagreement could yet wind up in Superior Court.

As Rupright explained the plan, it calls for a dirt berm running around the facility with a three-walled gun house in the center. City Councilwoman Dianne Woodruff said that 360-degree berm was something the commission added. Originally, the berm didn’t run all the way around.

The city would build the range, Rupright said, and a private company would handle the daily operations. Range officers with National Rifle Association training would be on hand. It would be open year-round.

Rupright said the main point on the first appeal had to do with noise. So the city brought in the same sound expert who helped the Mat-Su Borough craft its noise resolution. The ruling was that the sound from the range would be intermittent and at about 74 decibels — 6 decibels below what the borough’s ordinance considers acceptable.

“Take a nickel out of your pocket, hold it about 24 inches off of your desk and drop it,” Rupright said. “At 700 feet at 74 decibels that’s about the sound you might hear.”

But the opponents of the plan still say they don’t like how it’s moving along. Taffina Katkus won a seat on the city council running on a platform her opposition to the plan as the main plank. She said she’d like to see more input from city boards and commissions.

“The Parks and (Recreation Commission) was established for coming up with ideas for council for recreational facilities and land,” she said.

She’s also suspect on where the plan came from in the first place. It didn’t come from the parks commission.

For her part, Woodruff said she’s not opposed to a gun range and thinks the idea of gathering shooting sports enthusiasts in one location where they will be supervised and able to take advantage of training opportunities is a good one.

Woodward also said she has a few reservations about the noise of the range affecting homeowners nearby. Her memory of the planning commission meeting, she said, contains a higher decibel reading measured from the edge of nearby homeowners’ property.

But, she said, it’s not as if the sound is going to be at its maximum volume at all times.

“Nobody in their right mind is going to go out there and just slam 50-caliber slugs out there all day,” she said.

Rupright said all the city needs is a conditional-use permit, which it will have if and when the appeals process is exhausted.

After that it’s just a matter of finding funding to build it. And, he said, he doesn’t need council approval unless he has to appropriate money for it or accept a grant. Right now, he said, there isn’t any funding.

“We had some money on the books and we moved it to do some other stuff because we didn’t put that much into it,” he said.

That could change.

“Say, for example, the NRA steps up and says we’re going to give you 250,000 bucks?” Rupright asked. “Is the council going to say, ‘We don’t want the money?’”

Katkus said she hopes it goes that route; that the city finds it needs to appropriate money from other sources to build the range. She would like for the council to have another chance to voice its opinion and give or withhold its approval.

Woodruff said she’ll keep a close eye on the plan as it moves along. If groups that have said they would donate labor decide to do so, she’d like to make sure the city has its insurance in order. And she’s wary about spending city money on it. She hopes the council plays more of a role going forward.

“I’m a little discouraged by the public process, or lack thereof, that this one has had,” she said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.