“It’s like there’s a war going on in our front yard,” Jennye Hansen pleaded. Police Chief James Lewis said he may have found the solution to her problem.
The “war” in Hansen’s front yard is the Police Academy’s outdoor firing range, located at 710 Sherman Ave. Like many neighbors, Hansen has been dealing with the sounds of regular gunshots for years. But there’s been an uptick in the explosions heard on Sherman Avenue recently, as city police officers receive training on the use of their new 40-caliber Glock pistols.
At a Monday night community meeting, Chief Lewis presented an alternative that may lower the volume in the Beaver Hills and Newhallville neighborhoods that surround the firing range. Addressing the 15 local residents who gathered in the Hillhouse High School auditorium, Chief Lewis explained that it’s possible to hire a mobile, soundproofed firing range that’s housed inside a truck trailer. Such a range could be used as an alternative to the loud outdoor range until a more permanent solution can be found.
Lewis passed around a postcard advertisement for Blue Line Corporation, purveyors of “On-site – Affordable – High Quality Firearms Training.” For $30,000, the city could hire a mobile Blue Line range for three weeks. Running 12 hours a day, and seven days a week, three weeks would be enough time to conduct quarterly firearms training for all 500 city police officers, Lewis said.
Renting a mobile range presents a short-term solution to the longstanding issue of noise coming from the Sherman Avenue firing range. There are long-term solutions — like moving the range — in the works as well, explained city Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts.
A mobile range could be in place as soon as August or September, the chief said. He assured his audience that the ranges are completely soundproofed and gunshots cannot be heard from outside the trailer. A location has not been selected for parking it. Smuts said that he is considering the parking lot of the fire academy on Ella Grasso Boulevard.
A mobile range would not be suitable for rifle or “flash bang“ training. That training would still need to be conducted at the Sherman Avenue range, the chief said.
The $30,000 rental fee for a Blue Line range would be paid for initially by seized drug money, Lewis said. Despite the added cost, using a rented range could end up saving the city money, he said. Because the range can run 12 hours — or even 24 hours a day — the city would not have to pay officers overtime to train between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., as is currently required at the Sherman Avenue range.
Hansen (pictured), who lives on Ellsworth Avenue, across Beaver Pond from the range, asked the chief what can be done about gunshot noise between now and September, when a mobile range could arrive. Hansen said that she has been hearing gunshots at night. “A gunshot is a scary thing, particularly at night,” she said.
Gunshots heard at night are not coming from the range, Lewis said. “The night is not us, so you need to call us.”
“I wish we didn’t have to do this, but we have to shoot,” Lewis went on. The officers need to train on new weapons, he said. “You don’t want police officers carrying handguns that they’re not qualified to handle.”
A soundproofed mobile range might be just the thing, Lewis suggested to Hansen. “I think this thing’s gonna work for you,” he said.
Smuts (at left in photo) outlined two long-term options for a “permanent solution” to the firing range problem: moving to the Army Reserve base in West Rock, or building a new, indoor, range.
Moving to the Army Reserve base at 200 Wintergreen Avenue would be the first choice, said Smuts. “That’s a site that’s ideal for our police academy,” he said.
However, any such move would be at least two years a way, since disbursement of federal property is a very complicated process, and a new Army base would have to be built in Middletown. Smuts said that the preparatory applications for a move to the base are already under way.
Since it’s federal property, the use of the army base for homeless services is a required consideration. Homelessness advocates have submitted a proposal to use the army base as supportive housing.
The second option, building a new range, would also take several years, and be contingent on federal funding. An new indoor range would cost $6 million, Smuts said.
“We have light at the end of the tunnel, said Beaver Hills Alderman Moti Sandman (at right in photo above). However, it is a long tunnel, he added.
Nadir Abdul Salaam of Newhallville spoke up to ask Chief Lewis about the effect that hearing daily gunshots has on children. Salaam wondered if it was a “coincidence” that there is a firing range in Newhallville, the neighborhood that has the “highest rate of shootings” in the city.
“There are lots of shootings in Fair Haven and the Hill,” Lewis responded, mentioning two neighborhoods without shooting ranges.
“We can’t have kids hearing that much shooting and think it’s normal,” Smuts said. “We know it can’t be good in hearing the firing like that.”
After the meeting, Salaam gave an example of the effect that he’s seen the firing range have on his neighborhood. One of his neighbors was killed in a shooting several years ago. “No one really reacted, because people hear shots all day, every day.”
Salaam characterized the meeting as a “positive first step.”
“But there needs to be more done,” he added. “Gunshots are an everyday thing to these kids.”
“I think we’re making forward progress,” said Hansen. “I think it was a good meeting.”
If yer not going to put the methadone clinic in the old Circuit City on Universal Drive, at least put the firing range there.