Posted on 05/30/2008 6:08:44 AM PDT by marktwain
RHINEBECK - A neighbor of the Northern Dutchess Rod and Gun Club want state and federal environmental reviews of the Enterprise Road facility because of concerns that shot is landing in wetlands.
Property owner Spero Chumas, a village resident who rents property near the range, spoke about the issue Tuesday as the sound of shots from the facility periodically rang out. Members are allowed to practice from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. (or dusk) on a disputed trap range that neighbors say is an ongoing disturbance.
Members of the 75-year-old organization, which also uses the 340-acre facility for fishing and youth education programs, contend a six-year-old site plan change was designed for safety and sound improvements at a range that has been used since 1961.
Club Vice President Ron Hill said the highest priority was given for the safety of members who use the property.
"There are as many people that belong for the pond, for the fishing, as there are for the (trap shooting) range," he said.
Member Judy Coons said the club has been willing to listen to complaints but recognizes that not everyone will be happy.
"We made some changes and for some of the neighbors that was enough and for some of them it wasn't," she said.
Chumas said reorienting the range would provide a safer facility and have less impact on neighbors.
"I've been there for over 25 years and never had a complaint until 2002," he said. "Of course we heard shooting, but it was occasional, intermittent, and sporadic, and very infrequent during the summer months."
Complaints over the facility include alleged violations of the town noise ordinance, that it is too close to the road, and that multidirectional shooting violates federal environmental law.
"There's a pond 150 feet away from it which I think is a no-brainer to anyone with any environmental background," Chumas said. "Even the NRA recommended shot fall distances, which is how far a trap shooting facility should be from a road or a property line, is 900 feet. By their own testimony they have 580 to the road."
Neighbors in 2002 asked the Town Board to address concerns that club members were using the facility beyond the permitted hours of operation.
State Supreme Court Justice James Brands, in rulings issued in June and September 2004, supported the club's effort to seek a special permit from the town Planning Board for a target launching system and lighting adjustments at its Enterprise Road facility.
Neighbors contend town officials did not go far enough in challenging changes to the facility grounds.
"The fact that our (town) Planning Board refused to use the SEQR process to fully vet this issue has allowed for a litany of poor decisions to occur," Chumas said.
Club members, who note hunting also occurs on neighboring properties, disagree with the contention they have been given preferential treatment and said they have simply been successful in court.
“Follow the money. I’d bet that somewhere in the bushes there is a developer who would LOVE to get his hands on that 340 acre site.”
My thoughts, exactly. Something smells funny about this, and it ain’t the cordite fumes in the air.
One hopes that Pierce County will rise to the same level of wisedom (but I ain't agonna hold my breath waiting). Of course, Pierce County would need two---one east of "THE BRIDGE" and one west of it.
I think you're absolutely correct on that. Greedy developers use environmentalist fruit loops to wrest property away from organization like gun clubs.
Since you mention Gig Harbor, I do have one complaint however. I often shoot in the Winter Continental Trap League, and almost every time we shoot there there's thick fog, and the claybirds used are WHITE.
I wish I would’ve watched that.
I don’t remember who it was, but a quote went something like “A golf course is a perfectly good waste of a shooting range.”
ROFLOL. Great line.
Maybe the guy is near an Air Force or Navy practice bombing range.
No way the guy could hear small arms fire from 7 miles away.
The magic word is "winter". Move the WINTER shoot to Phoenix, and have the SUMMER shoot in Gig Harbor. Voila---no fog :^)
It was actually Shotgun fire..funny thing is the guy lived less than a mile from rail lines and 2 miles from the flight line of an Air Force Base!!!!!
And he said the noise was actually causing his child to have trouble sleeping.
I need to become a bolt cutter by becoming armed.
re. your #16
Amen, FRiend
How could he hear shotgun fire when he’s so close to an Air Force flight line?
That sounds like a plan, now, about the gale force winds at Bremerton...
Only in winter. Never seen any in summer (admittedly, my residence in this part of the world is only ten years, so my "experience baseline" is somewhat short).
What can be speculated and surmised regarding the comments of Spero Chumas, if it is the same person believed he is? He seems to basically be an actor wannabe that has had some very minor and unrecognized roles and an association with a mediocre, at best, improvisational acting group. It might be helpful to look at the matter from the view point of an unsuccessful individual in terms of his own life goals. It may be that at best such as he can only rationalize minor successes in the acting and theater community, and is seeking some degree of notoriety and recognition due to a failing self image. Perhaps unable to succeed in legitimate stage drama, he seeks and creates a dramatic scenario to play out in a public forum. There he seems to be expressing some views beyond his experience, and a rather weak BA in acting. For his own benefit, it might be prudent to question if Mr. Chamus has had any counseling, for what may appear to be problems related more to self esteem and image, than any authentic or well founded grievances with the gun club.
Perhaps it would be best for all involved if Mr. Chumas would restrict these feelings of frustration and impotence to expressions acted out in interpretive dance.
For your benefit a Playback Theater group (actually two) is across the river from you Spero. Maybe brushing up on the Moreno perspective of acting as therapy would be helpful in sorting out your real issues. No, seriously. I feel your pain.
With regard to established noise: should the issue Mr. Chamus brings up be expanded to ridding neighborhoods of other intermittent nose makers, such as firehouses and churches that sound bells and chimes? What about that damned rooster at the many generations old family farm way down the road? Heaven forbid neighbors mow their lawn, or tend to landscaping with any frequency. By the way, I can hear the New York State Thruway traffic from my yard. Can we possibly look at having the south bound lane reoriented?
The Freeman article seems a little vague. Is this a landowner in the region or a renter? Some other facts are debatable. How did that get by editorial staff at the Freeman? Never mind. What was I thinking? After all it’s the Freeman editorial staff we are talking about. Even their own writers have voiced problems.
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