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Shooting range planned in Cullowhee?
To the Editor:
Picture this: On a beautiful Saturday morning in May, you grab a cup of hot coffee and settle on to your porch for quiet conversation with a loved one, while enjoying the songs of the birds and the emerging green leaves of spring. Without warning a shotgun blast shatters the calm. It is followed by another shot and then another. Birds flee. Quiet conversation becomes impossible. The barrage of gunfire reverberates across the hillsides and it continues all day. Tomorrow you might expect more of the same.
Right now this scenario is a distinct possibility facing me and other residents of the Speedwell community near Cullowhee. A gun club could soon purchase an historic old farm on Tilley Creek and turn it into a shooting range. Whether or not this deal goes through, I ask you to consider how vulnerable you would be if a similar enterprise moves in next to you. If you decide to dig in and work to protect your home and neighborhood, you might be shocked at the obstacles before you.
North Carolina law on shooting ranges is heavily tilted in favor of the range operators and severely limits the legal recourse available to neighbors who are adversely affected.
Jackson County has a noise ordinance, but it is so vague as to be virtually unenforceable and there is little or no intention to enforce it. Besides that, it does not even address the matter of noise generated by shooting ranges.
Shooting ranges pose many potential environmental problems besides noise. There are reasons to be concerned about the possibility of lead contaminating soil and water. Eventual cleanup costs could be staggering and it is quite possible that at some point in the future taxpayers would be stuck with the bill.
Despite the hazards, it does not appear that any state or federal environmental agency is ready to regulate the activities of a new shooting range in Jackson County.
Our Jackson County commissioners have displayed a reluctance to enact any significant controls on land use, even on something as blatantly intrusive as a shooting range. A policy of allowing people to “do as they wish on their own land” has merit, but it should be obvious that this hands-off approach to high-impact activities like shooting ranges means that neighboring landowners are deprived of the right to do as they wish on their land.
I don’t want a shooting range on my doorstep, but I don’t want to merely be a “not-in-my-backyarder.” No one in Jackson County should have such a nuisance imposed on them. No one in Jackson County should have their property values devastated and way of life compromised so unfairly and so needlessly.
I believe most people in Jackson County want the right thing and if enough of us take even a little action, we can find a way to protect ourselves from such senseless, random and aggressive developments.
A small group of us has tackled this issue. We will be holding a public meeting in the very near future. If you share this concern and want to join this effort, or if you have ideas and suggestions on how we can proceed from here, please contact me. Your energy, encouragement and solidarity would definitely make a difference.
Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.
Perry Eury
Cullowhee
Justice seems blind, but not swift
To the Editor:
Taxes are being taken from “us” for public safety? I was jumped and beaten by two young men at Cedar Cliff Lake almost two years ago.
It took more than $40,000 in doctors bills, reconstructive surgery, three titanium plates and 12 screws to reconstruct my face.
I found one of the culprits one month later on my own. I have reported this to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office on four separate occasions.
To this day nothing has been done. No investigation, no charges, nothing.
My intelligence says that “our” tax dollars are being “unusefully” spent. The Sheriff’s Office runs a column in the paper on how to prevent crime, but when crime happens, nothing is ever done.
Who is going to pay these bills? I cannot afford the medical bills.
If the public can’t take the law into their hands, then what’s the “law” for?
I spoke with an officer at the Sheriff’s Office and was informed that they were more concerned about the drug problem in “our” community.
Common sense says that drugs and crime go hand-in-hand.
If I were to take this matter into my own hands, I would be locked up, no questions asked.
I believe that the culprits should be arrested, convicted and sentenced, serve time and pay my doctors’ bills. I didn’t do this to myself.
Randy Marrinan
Sylva
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