City eyes new gun range for police
COLUMBIANA — The city has its sights set on a small piece of property to be used as a gun range for the police department.
The department has never had its own range before, with officer training done at the county sheriff’s range on County Home Road in Lisbon.
Columbiana Police Chief Tim Gladis and City Manager Lance Willard said the new range will help cut training costs for the department, since driving to Lisbon to use that range factors into officer time.
“County Home Road is a 35-minute drive. You’re losing an hour and a half to two hours’ time driving back and forth,” Gladis said.
Additional benefit are the saving of wear and tear on police cruisers as a result of less driving, and less fuel expenses.
The city has looked into the possibility of a local range in the past, but could never find a suitable piece of property. Now, the city is looking into locating the outdoor firing range on city-owned property where the current water plant is located.
Gladis explained that with the construction of the new water plant, the “opportunity presented itself” to use a piece of the property for the range that is situated in a location away from any homes.
Specifically, the range will be located more than 2,000 feet off Metz Road, Willard said.
Gladis noted that the property already lies “in a natural bowl” that provides an already existing earthen backstop or buffer for firing.
He and Willard also said that the city has already received an anonymous donation of labor to construct the range, meaning that the only expense required of the city is the preparation of the ground surface itself and the wooden frames to hold the targets that will be provided by officers.
“It is saving a ton of money,” Gladis said of the donated labor, which will consist of using heavy equipment to move the ground to make sure the range is safe for shooting and poses no danger to anything nearby.
Willard said consideration will be given to build the range in such a way to avoid noise for surrounding property owners and that range hours will be restricted to late morning and early afternoon.
Preliminary plans were presented to the city’s planning commission on Tuesday, and were approved.
Willard said the next step is for the city to apply for a conditional zoning permit, since the property is currently zoned Agricultural-Open-Space-Conservation.
“It is really going to be a benefit, and we are really excited about it,” Gladis said of the potential range.
The range will be used for training for the department’s 13 full-time and five part-time officers.
The city plans to hold the required public hearing at the Dec. 12 planning commission meeting, and Willard said that contiguous property owners will be notified.