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County officials table range moratorium
By Derek Hodges
As tempers flared over a proposal to build a shooting range on Tilley Creek, county commissioners voted Monday (March 21) to put the issue off at least one more week.
The Tilley Creek matter was first raised at the commissioners’ March 7 meeting by Tilley Creek resident Perry Eury.
Eury asked commissioners to consider placing a one-year moratorium on all shooting range development to allow time for an ordinance on the subject to be drafted.
Eury and several others opposed to the range spoke out at both the March 7 and March 21 meetings, telling commissioners a moratorium and ordinance were needed to protect property owners.
Unlike the first time the issue was discussed, at the March 21 meeting commissioners heard from several people in favor of the range. Each speaker’s comments, both in favor of and opposed to the range, brought reaction, often shouted angrily, from members of the opposing camp.
Barry Moore, who identified himself as the president and secretary of the Smoke Rise Field Club, the group working to buy the Tilley Creek property, said the range would not have a negative impact on surrounding property owners.
“We intend to be responsible neighbors,” Moore said. “The public safety is our number one concern.”
The group sent a letter to county Planning Director Linda Cable, who would be in charge of drafting an ordinance, stating that they do not plan to close on the property for 90 days, and definitely will not do so in under 75 days, Moore said.
The group is in favor of an ordinance written with National Rifle Association guidelines in mind, Moore said.
Raymond Bunn, a Sylva resident, said he was worried about what effect regulating ranges might have.
“I’m not here on behalf of Smoke Rise, but on behalf of a lot of citizens of Jackson County,” Bunn said.
While Bunn had no listing of those he claimed to represent, he did say he felt his opinion is the same as “most” people in the county.
“This whole issue has turned into one of property rights,” Bunn said.
The range, which Bunn believes would be managed better than other ranges on public land, would not bring a rush of such facilities to the county as some fear, Bunn said.
“I don’t think you’re going to see that,” he said.
Bunn asked that the commissioners not pass the moratorium or an ordinance.
Pressley Creek resident Louis Spagna said he felt those in favor of the range were framing the debate in the wrong way.
“Let’s get this straight: This is not about guns,” Spagna said. “We need a moratorium because there is going to be risk (to the public from the club).”
Spagna said he understood the value of properties surrounding a shooting range could drop as much as 20 percent if the range is created. That would, in turn, create a drop in property tax revenue for the county, a deficit that would have to be made up by other taxpayers, he said.
“Everybody’s going to end up paying for this,” Spagna said.
D.L. Wilkey, a Whittier resident who presented himself as an expert in the effects of lead on the environment, said he had been asked by Smoke Rise to do research on the effect lead from such a range might have on its surroundings.
Wilkey said lead immediately oxidizes after being fired from a gun, meaning it could only present a threat to a very small amount of wildlife, and only under certain circumstances.
“I don’t think the lead toxicity is an issue,” Wilkey said.
Homer Royals told commissioners he disagreed with Wilkey, saying he does believe introducing lead from the range into the area around Tilley Creek could cause environmental damage.
Royals, who said as a gun owner he is not against shooting, asked commissioners for a moratorium to allow studies of lead’s possible effects to be conducted.
Eury took the speakers’ podium after Royals and asked those opposed to the range to stand. He also presented commissioners with two petitions bearing 91 signatures. Those petitions are in addition to others Eury gave officials March 7 with the names of more than 280 people opposed to the range.
While Eury said he had heard members of Smoke Rise say they wanted to be good neighbors, he said he wasn’t convinced.
“I haven’t seen one shred of evidence of that yet,” Eury said. “It’s time for Smoke Rise to go back to the drawing board, to withdraw its proposal to build a shooting range on Tilley Creek and to find a more suitable location.”
Randy Deitz, who serves as manager at Smoke Rise, said the issue was one of personal rights.
“I’m talking about American freedom,” Deitz said. “Our local people like to do their own thing. That’s the way we’ve always done it in the mountains. We’ve always had our way.”
Deitz said he suspects many of the people living in the Tilley Creek area are not what he considers locals.
“These New Jersey people don’t want us on their land,” he said.
Cindy Anthony, a Tilley Creek resident, disagreed with Deitz’s assessment.
“Most of the people on that mountain are living on land that was granted by the governor. They’re part of the original settlers,” Anthony said.
Most of the people on Tilley Creek would not want to get into their neighbors’ business, Anthony said, unless that business affects their own way of life.
“We’re talking about rights of individual citizens on their own property,” Anthony said.
Adam Ray, an eighth-grader at Cullowhee Valley School, presented the names of 28 people he said were opposed to the range.
Commissioner Joe Cowan, who had missed the previous meeting due to illness, said he wasn’t ready to vote on the issue. He requested that the commissioners be allowed to discuss the issue with Cable at the next meeting.
Cowan’s motion to table the issue passed unanimously.
In other business March 21:
• School budget – Superintendent Sue Nations presented a draft budget from the school system.The $34.9 million proposal included requests for an additional $15,000 for psychological services, a new custodian for the building under construction at Smoky Mountain High School and an additional middle-grades teacher.
At commissioners’ budget retreat Feb. 15, former Chairman Stacy Buchanan asked board members to “hold the line” in rejecting requests for new employees from county departments.
A complete budget draft for the county should be ready by April, said county Manager Ken Westmoreland.
• Road abandonment – Hearings held prior to the meeting on the abandonment of portions of Silver Run and Hall Town roads brought no comments from the public.
The resolutions to abandon parts of those roads were adopted unanimously.
• Airports – Commissioners voted to go into closed session to discuss what Westmoreland called a “legal” issue. Commissioners had voted to discuss a resolution supporting a proposed extension of the Macon County Airport runway after the closed session on a motion by Commissioner Brian McMahan.
When the meeting reopened, commissioners voted to approve the resolution, then considered a new agenda item that would call for the General Assembly to consider approving the creation of a joint Jackson-Macon Airport Authority. The motion passed unanimously with no discussion.
Commissioner and acting Chairman Roberta Crawford said she did not know if the motion was intended to dissolve the separate boards that currently exist in each county.
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