The Muscatine County Zoning Board shot down a request to create a gun range for police training in Muscatine County on Friday Oct. 7, voting 4-1 to deny the 28-E agreement proposed by the county sheriff’s department and the City of Muscatine.
The ruling closes discussion on that particular 20 acres of property owned by Deahr Farms, LLC, located about five miles south of Moscow and just off County Road F70.
Martha Peterson was the only member of the board to vote for the proposal while Tom Harper, Carol Schlueler, Virginia Cooper and Brad Akers all voted against the proposal before a packed house of about 150, moved to the Environmental Learning Center after an early September meeting was postponed due to the fact the county supervisor’s quarters weren’t large enough to handle the oversize crowd.
Todd Kraklio of rural Wilton, one of the neighbors opposed to the proposal, said there were at least 120 local residents at the morning meeting, some of which spoke at the hearing, listening to pros and cons about the proposal.
Nearly all of the residents said they weren’t against officers getting proper training for safety and shooting, although most “didn’t want it in our backyard,” citing noise, environmental and safety issues.
“Thank God it didn’t go through,” said Kraklio. “It’s not often you can say you fought the law and you won!”
Kraklio said he felt the turning point of the meeting was a speech from Mark Henning of the Izaak Walton League gun range also located in the county. “He really saved us,” Kraklio said, noting his main message was that when they uncover lead on the sandy Izaak Walton grounds, bullets do not deteriorate like they would in the proposed ground rich in prime farm soil, lead broken up by nutrients, nitrogen and other chemicals, eventually seeping into the ground water and causing contamination.
Kraklio said there were many people making solid discussions at the meeting and was pleased with the fact zoning board members listened after the City of Muscatine and the Muscatine County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed previous proposals for the gun range, bringing it to a final zoning board decision.
The gun range was to be bought at $21,000 an acre, much more than regular farm land, and would have to be excavated to meet the needs of the police, who presently have to do their training outside the county. There were little studies revealed on the cost of actually building the facility once the land was bought. “It looked like a real money pit for the taxpayers,” said Kraklio.
He said the gun range may be located at another piece of property in the county, “but at least it’s not going into our back yard.”