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Officials hear requests for shooting range moratorium
By Derek Hodges
Supporters of a proposed moratorium on shooting ranges in Jackson County packed the county commissioners’ meeting room Monday night (March 7).
Donning pieces of orange paper pinned to their shirts to show their opposition to a proposed shooting range on Tilley Creek, some took the speakers’ podium to voice their feelings on the matter. Those who spoke were given long ovations from others in the room.
Smoke Rise Field Club, currently located in Cashiers but looking to relocate, is in final negotiations with property owner Sam Matthews to purchase a 194-acre Tilley Creek tract, according to gun club treasurer Jim Reynolds, who is brokering the deal.
“(The proposed shooting range) is completely inappropriate for the environment,” said Louis Spagna.
Spagna, a Pressley Creek resident, said he would rather see other options for preservation of the farm considered.
Burt Kornegay, a Caney Fork resident who guides tours in Panthertown Valley near the gun club’s current location, echoed Spagna.
“It doesn’t belong there. It’s out of place,” Kornegay said. “I’m not opposed to gun ownership or shooting ranges. I am opposed to (a shooting range) on Tilley Creek. I can hear the sharp booming reports of the shotguns used at this shooting range from the middle of Panthertown Valley. Everyone who lives on Tilley Creek and its surroundings is going to hear those gun shots.”
Cindy Anthony, the great-granddaughter of Bob Pressley, the farm’s original owner, said she, too, was interested in preservation of the property for its historic value.
“It’s an example of my heritage and culture, and the heritage and culture of most of the people in this room,” Anthony said.
Anthony and several other speakers touched on the potential environmental hazards of such a range.
“The more you read about it, it’s scary when you learn more about lead contamination,” she said.
Tilley Creek resident Mark Melrose said it was the commissioners’ responsibility to enact the proposed moratorium.
“The role of local government is to act for the common good,” Melrose said. “This is a request by the governed to get their government to help them when they cannot help themselves. (The proposed range) isn’t a Tilley Creek problem. It wasn’t a Caney Fork problem. It’s a Jackson County problem.”
Commissioners were presented with a draft moratorium by Commissioner Roberta Crawford who, as vice chairman, presided in the absence of former Chairman Stacy Buchanan, who resigned Monday. Commissioner Joe Cowan was also absent, due to an extended illness, leaving only Crawford and commissioners Eddie Madden and Brian McMahan.
Tilley Creek resident Perry Eury, the unofficial spokesman for the group opposing the range, addressed commissioners in support of the moratorium.
“We’re here to defend the rights of property owners. We’ve got to have sensible controls (for shooting ranges),” Eury said. “I’m not saying all shooting ranges should be outlawed – there are appropriate places for a shooting range. Tilley Creek is not an appropriate place.”
Eury asked commissioners to enact an “immediate moratorium,” and presented them with a petition he said contained more than 280 names of people opposed to a range on Tilley Creek.
At one point in his comments Eury mentioned Matthews, who had previously requested that commissioners enact a similar moratorium when the club was looking at land near Matthews’ Caney Fork home. Eury’s discussion of Matthews’ work to sell the Tilley Creek land brought a murmur from the crowd, and one woman said, “He didn’t want (a shooting range) on Caney Fork.”
No one spoke in favor of the proposed range, though in a statement to The Herald, Reynolds said, “We did have representatives at the meeting. They just didn’t say much, as we left our written statement for the county commissioners.”
The statement, written by Reynolds on behalf of the field club’s board of directors, said the club has worked to address concerns about noise and environmental pollution.
Several club officials had, “in anticipation of the successful purchase of the property,” decided on several ways to reduce the adverse effects from the range on nearby residents, Reynolds wrote.
All shooting will be done on the south side of the creek, away from the waterway and Tilley Creek Road, which bisects the property. That action will reduce noise levels, ensure that there will be no contamination of Tilley Creek and keep traffic on the road out of the range of shots, Reynolds wrote.
Club officials have measured the potential noise output from the property and have found it at 65 decibels, which Reynolds points out is below the noise limit in nearby Henderson County.
The fact that Trillium subdivision, which is looking to expand onto land the club is now leasing, is considering the range’s current site for future building is a sign the land is clean, Reynolds wrote.
“We have a track record. It is our conviction that if Trillium had any reservations or concerns about environmental damage of any kind, including lead contamination, those issues would have been detrimental to negotiations. In fact, the issue was raised and was passed over as one with no real environmental consequences,” Reynolds wrote.
Reynolds also addressed concerns about the hours the new range might operate. While the club has yet to make a final decision on what hours it would operate, he wrote, they do not plan to operate six and a half days a week. He said the club will not operate on Sunday morning.
The entire operation, should it be moved to Tilley Creek, will be run in strict compliance to National Rifle Association standards, Reynolds wrote.
The commissioners will vote on the moratorium on development of new and expansion of existing shooting ranges at their meeting Monday, March 21.
In other business March 7:
• Canada Park plan – County Manager Ken Westmoreland and Canada community resident Ed Riley presented commissioners with the final version of the plan for a new park in Canada.
The total project will cost $360,000, with half that money coming from grants and half from the county, Westmoreland said. The park will include an amphitheater and walking trail.
“They’ve done a wonderful job of putting in everything we’ve requested – except the indoor, heated pool,” Riley said.
When asked about the size of the amphitheater, Riley joked that it would hold plenty of people, but was somewhat small because, “We had to save room for the pool.”
He said he hopes the park will be home to a pool sometime in the future.
Commissioners will vote on the plan at their next meeting.
• Webster Complex plan revision – Westmoreland presented what he called “hopefully the final” revisions to the master plan for the Webster Complex.
Plans now call for several facilities for community service agencies, all joined together architecturally. A community for senior citizens and a 1.5 mile walking trail are also included, as is space for a new Jackson County Rescue Squad facility that may be constructed in the future.
• Road abandonments – Commissioners heard requests for road abandonments on Silver Run and Hall Town roads. Public hearings on the proposals will be held at 6 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. Monday, March 21.
The commissioners’ next meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. that same evening.
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