Published: June 16, 2009 08:34 am      

Council OKs proposed indoor shooting range for city

The last time the city council took action on a firearms matter it created a bit of a controversy, but the latest action taken by the council should make local shooters much happier.

The city recently received a letter from a local resident who is interested in opening an indoor shooting range inside the city limits. Norm Seip's letter to city manager Ted Meadows indicated that he owns property behind the Crossville Kmart where he proposes to build and operate the indoor range.

Seip's letter said, “I am aware that there will be many questions and concerns that will need to be addressed.”

One of the problems with the proposal is that the city has an ordinance that has been on the books for many years that does not allow firearms to be discharged within the city limits. After some discussion by the council and information from Mr. Seip who attended the meeting, the council approved a change to the ordinance.

City attorney Ken Chadwell is working on an ordinance to specifically address the issue of operating a shooting range in the city for consideration at a future council meeting.

Seip told the council that the proposed building would be well insulated so that noise would not be a factor and the building will be an attractive addition to the community. The range would operate on a fee basis and shooters would be required to provide identification and underage shooters would not be allowed.

Seip added that in addition to the shooting range he planned to offer classes for hunter safety and a concealed weapons class as well.

During the meeting the council heard a report from city engineer Tom Wolf on the status of the city's new soccer complex. There have been some problems that must be corrected before the soccer fields are ready for use including some additional grass planting and repairing problems with the installation of the irrigation sprinkler system.

The repairs and corrections are moving forward and most of the fields should be ready for use by the end of July and the remainder by the end of August if not sooner. Because of planting and new grass a large amount of water will be used to get the grass started.

The city is continuing to work on their water loss problem. Public works director Tim Begley reported to the council that while some of the bad water meters had been replaced some remained to be replaced and the report from the previous month will not reflect any of the corrections made. Begley said the report for the next month should begin to show the results of the work so far.

Begley also reported that three public works employees had been trained in checking the accuracy of water meters recently and the city would be test more meters looking for one that are not reporting correctly.

As part of the consent agenda the council approved several temporary street closings including closings for Deport Days on June 20, for the Bread of Life block party on Fourth Street on June 27 and the children's parade on July 4 sponsored by the Crab Orchard DAR.

Also approved was a long list of annual price contracts for the new fiscal year as well as approval of a grant application for the purchase of bulletproof vests for the police department.