Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The outdoor gun range that county officials have been pursuing, if seemingly reluctantly, has now been put on the back burner.
Officials had been pinning their latest hope for the gun range on a potential land swap that would gain the county a 100-acre property near the crossroads of U.S. 90 and Salt Road. Officials envisioned this property serving multiple purposes, including a shooting range, a borrow pit and the location of a repeater station for the emergency services.
Their idea involved selling the county's landfill site on Tyson Road to an adjoining property owner and using the resulting money from the sale to help pay for the purchase of the 100-acre parcel. Officials, however, apparently overestimated the amount that the adjoining property owner would be willing to pay for landfill property.
County Coordinator Parrish Barwick informed the Jefferson County Commission on Thursday, Oct. 17, that the property owner's offer had proven much lower than expected.
“We had a conversation with Beau Turner about him helping out by buying the land,” Barwick said, speaking of the landfill property. “But his offer was disappointing.”
Barwick noted that three other suggested alternative sites for the gun range weren't viable. The Tyson landfill site, he noted, had drawn opposition from nearby neighbors, as had the UF property off U.S. 90 from the board. He was referring to Commission Chairwoman Betsy Barfield's objection to the UF site, based on it being surrounded by a residential neighborhood. As for the county's land mine, Barwick said it would require shutting down the mining operation if the gun range were placed there.
Barfied agreed. She had a problem, she reiterated, with expending $200,000 or more of public funds to purchase the 100-acre property. The asking price for the property has been reported at between $2,800 and $3,500 per acre. Especially, she added, when the county had 99 acres at the old land mine. She also had a problem with the public sector competing with a private business, a reference to Robinson Gunworks, an indoor gun range that the city was expected to approve. (The council, in fact, approved the indoor gun range on Tuesday evening, Nov. 5.)
“I think we should see how it goes with Robinson before doing anything more,” Barfield said.
The rest of the board appeared to agree, judging from the lack of objection from the other members.
The idea of an outdoor shooting range by first broached by Keith Cook, who, along with a few others, has continued to press the commission to pursue the issue.