Is this the range/club involved?
http://wildlifehunters.com/index.html
Website says it's 80 acres, not 640, most 80 acre parcels are 1/4 X 1/2 mile, which would take a mile and a half of fence to surround, not 4 miles. Still....not a cheap venture. They also claim to have a waiting list for new members and current members hunt all over the world.....meaning asking to raise the membership fee probably wouldn't be a problem with most folk. While I know the range would have to be closed for a period of time until a solution is found, it seems a solution could be found......especially with some state matched grants as shown on hso's link. It seems a solution could be found, if a solution really is wanted, not only with the help of state monies, but with their expertise also. For your sake and the sake of the rest of the members I hope so. I'm not saying current building codes are acceptable or make sense. Being a builder by trade, I deal with them all the time. I also sympathize with your situation. According to the website, it seems like a great place to shoot for a yearly family membership fee of $200. I just am puzzled by the lack of communication to the members about a situation that affects them so severely.
Yes, that's the place. And, I agree with what you are saying. In fact, I've talked to at least 5 members since it happened (all VERY active members like myself) and no one had heard anything about this happening prior to the e-mail we all received.
There's definitely not 640 acres worth of range upon which we are shooting. The 80 acres stated on the website sounds far more accurate. The property may very well be 640 acres, but the portion we're using is not.
The more I think about it (and talk about it with other members) the more it seems like maybe there's something else going on behind the scenes that I/we haven't heard about yet. I e-mailed the head of the organization, but have heard nothing back yet. I wanted to give him a couple of days to deal with the onslaught of questions he's probably receiving, but I plan to call him in the next day or two to discuss the issue by phone.
The thing about this club is that it wasn't run as the typical non-profit shooting club. The two guys in charge were turning a profit off of the place, so it wasn't like this was an organization that was run by board-rule. Nevertheless, they always kept the rates very reasonable, and the rules were very easy to deal with at this place. As such, the loss of such a facility is substantial to those of us who used it.
Many of us regularly shot with the guy who ran the place (myself included), and none of us have heard anything else about this situation other than the e-mail we received (at least so far as I've heard yet). It's a strange situation, and the lack of communication is uncharacteristic of this club.
I mean, here's a few things that I can think of:
1) If this case was looming in court, why not solicit the help of members in fighting it?
2) If someone alleged that a round came from our range, why not make them attempt to prove it?
3) Since that allegation occurred about a year ago, why is it just now affecting the range?
4) If there's a legal battle to be fought, why not fight it with the membership dollars instead of refunding all of that money and disbanding the organization? Or, even solicit some extra money from the members due to an unusual hardship that could force the closure of the range?
5) Since the range was existing prior to this code change, why not fight to have it grandfathered? Codes constantly change, and a five year old house often isn't up to current code... that doesn't mean that the house becomes unusable.
Frankly, I don't know what's going on here, but it's a strange situation. One of my friends from the range is planning to contact the landowner for more information in the next few days (the land was leased to our shooting club, and is owned by a farmer in that immediate area). Perhaps he'll be able to shed some light on that situation, and perhaps he'll be able to help us reopen a shooting facility on those grounds if everyone else decides to bail out.
The other rumor I've heard in the last few days is that the county didn't actually serve legal papers on anyone affiliated with this land, or this range. The rumor I heard (and it is strictly rumor) is only that the county commissioner's office advised one of the club owners by telephone that they range was no longer authorized. I have NO idea if this is true or not, but that kind of statement would have received a reply from me along the lines of: "Okay, if that's the case you guys need to serve me with some sort of notice explaining this situation so that I can present it to my lawyer for review". I wouldn't take a verbal "don't shoot anymore" from some elected official. That's not how zoning changes are made, and that's not how code violations are enforced.
I do hope this situation gets worked out, because I had every intention of shooting on this property for many years to come. The biggest frustration is the lack of information we've received about the situation (other than that surprise e-mail).
