Shooting range public hearing off Campbell County menu

A public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, to discuss building an outdoor shooting range near the landfill off Calohan Road in Rustburg was removed from the docket because of resident feedback.

At the regularly scheduled Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Campbell County Administrator David Laurrell recommended the board withdraw the special use permit request for the range to give the county time to investigate alternative sites, and address the safety and sound concerns of residents.

 “There were so many concerns and unanswered questions that we felt it was appropriate to look at alternative sites from both a safety and sound perspective and also to see if other localities or departments have any interest in forming a partnership,” said Laur-rell. The county owns property near the current Lynchburg Police Department shooting range, which may provide one alternative.

The planned public hearing was supposed to help determine if the proposed site was a good location, not to determine if there is a need, he said.

 “We need a firing range, said Laurrell. “The question is where do we put it?”

The Campbell County Sheriff’s Office wants to build an outdoor shooting range, training center and impound lot in order to expe-dite and reduce the cost of training officers. The department spends close the $10,000 a year to rent firing ranges to train its 65 depu-ties. Because the department borrows facilities, training must be condensed into a short time period.

Money has not been appropriated for the construction of a shooting range, training facility and impound lot but the item has been on the county’s Capital Improvement Plan for about eight years.

According to Capt. Kevin Schmitt, with the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office, a nearby facility would allow the department to stretch training out over a period of several weeks, allowing for more one-on-one attention and, ideally, lead to a better trained force.

Opponents, the majority of whom live in the Twin Oaks Mobile Home Park and the Poplar Ridge subdivision, said the proposed site is too close to homes and would subject residents to loud noise and the threat of errant bullets. Some residents who met in late De-cember at the “Concerned Citizens for Campbell County” meeting also had concerns about pollution and using tax dollars to build a facility taxpayers cannot use.

“I’m glad that we got it stopped from going in over here but I’m sorry that it’s going to take longer for them to find a location be-cause I wholeheartedly support a firing range for the department, they need it,” said Don Barnett, a Poplar Ridge resident who op-posed the proposed site and was pleased to hear Supervisors say Tuesday night that public input is important and decisions are not made prior to meetings.

The decision to remove the permit request from the agenda was the right one to make, said Board of Supervisor Chairman Stan Goldsmith who’d been contacted by about nine concerned residents prior to the meeting.

“We as a county board,” said Goldsmith, “are not anxious to put people in a position of being so unhappy and so concerned about their safety and well-being and we’re gonna be sure that we’ve exercised all the options that we have to try to find a more appropriate site.”

Laurrell said he will contact an architectural firm specializing in shooting ranges to look at potential sites and provide feedback. In addition, the county may look into temporary arrangements with other departments to ensure the county has continued access to train-ing sites.

Officials plan to spend 6 to 12 months looking into alternatives before submitting another special use permit request.