Barnstable Public Range

[Powderhorn]

Hello everyone,
Some of you may know but the Barnstable outdoor public range has been shut down for some time now. I am here to announce that there is a meeting @ the Barnstable Town Hall on Thursday August 7th at 7PM to talk about the re opening of the range. I have spoken with a number of the Town Council members and DNR officers who say that the range will reopen and they need our support there to make sure it gets done quickly and efficiently once and for all. Anyone who was affected by the closing of this range we would appreciate your attendance to this meeting if you can make it if you were not but know someone who was affected by this please pass on the word about the meeting.
Thanks very much
Greg
Powderhorn

 

[Ocean]

The Barnstable Town Range is still at risk. Your presence is needed at the Barnstable Town Council meeting to be held at the Barnstable Town Hall this coming Thursday, September 18, 2014, at 7:00 p.m.. The Town Council will be hearing comment and voting on the future of opening the range.

 

[Rim Job]

In case anybody was wondering, the Sept 18th meeting was put on hold until this past Oct 16, when after almost 90 minutes of debate was put on hold again until Jan 22. Still has a bunch of hoops (talking about MEPA, state legislature, town approving swap, insurance, upgrades to sound abatement) so I'm guessing 2017

 

[oilspill]

And if it looks like it's gaining any traction a group of neighbors will file a lawsuit.

 

[CapeCodder]

And the neighbors did hire a lawyer.

Another delaying tactic, and everything is on hold until January.
http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/home2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37638&Itemid=152

 

[p..]

http://www.capecodtimes.com/article/20150107/NEWS/150109598/101015

“What I’d like to persuade my colleagues to do is separate the two issues, the land swap from the shooting range,” Canedy said. “We’re going to do the land swap ... maybe ... but even if we do that, it doesn't mean the shooting range will reopen.”

 

[Sarge]

WTF, I read this article myself last nite

 

[p..]

http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/home2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37210&Itemid=50

On August 22, 2014, in the Barnstable Patriot, Ann Canedy wrote:

Shooting Range: As you know, the Shooting Range, tucked into a portion of the West Barnstable Conservation Area, has been closed for several months, for a variety of reasons. Part of the requirement to reopen it involves taking the acreage devoted to the range (plus a buffer zone) out of conservation designation and placing it into "municipal" designation. The State requires the Town to substitute that acreage for a comparable (in size and conservation value) a parcel now designated as "municipal" and place that parcel into "conservation." A 17-acre parcel known as Breeds Hill has been selected as that substitute parcel.
For my constituents, Breeds Hill is a very important parcel of land which was originally purchased at a Special Town Meeting in 1986 for "water supply protection purposes," but was placed thereafter in municipal use, rather than conservation use. The Barnstable Water District has long been interested in restricting that land as it is immediately up gradient and cross gradient to its active wells. Additionally, the parcel is home to State-protected potential vernal pools and wetlands and is part of an endangered species habitat and regional core habitat. It is both ecologically and environmentally important to Barnstable Village wells, as well as being a contributory area for Hyannis wells. For this reason, I support the land swap.
I am cognizant and empathetic, however, of the concerns many have raised about the compatibility of the Range in its present location. If the Council elects to reopen the range, I believe we have an obligation to commit to progressive and aggressive lead clean-up and noise abatement. Toward that end, I would support a baseline study of the present conditions (updating an earlier environmental study), a financial commitment by both the Town Manager and the Town Council to the construction of effective noise barriers and a short-term and long-range plan of monitoring and clearing any and all lead contamination, if such exists. I also advocate creating a Shooting Range Advisory Board which would consist of abutters, Range users, natural resource officers, Conservation Commission members and others, whose charge would be to advise the Manager on lead, noise, hours of operation, fees, etc. All of this requires a huge financial and time commitment, which I feel strongly the taxpayers, Council and Manager must fully understand and be willing to accept if we proceed down the road of reopening the Range.

It is my impression that when a politician wants to stop something without taking the blame for doing so, one common technique is to create committees and advisory boards which will inherently lean in a particular direction, and create costs for which there is no funding.

 

[oilspill]

Bumping this thread because the Barnstable Town Council may vote tomorrow night whether to proceed with the land swap, which would theoretically get things moving to reopen the town range.

Hoping folks will show up to show support.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[oilspill]

If you can't make it consider leaving a comment for the council on the agenda item:

http://www.townofbarnstable.us/TownCouncil/

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[p..]

I just noticed there is a job posting for a Barnstable range attendant shown here: Jobs

But unless I'm looking right at it and just not seeing it, it does not appear to be here: Official Website of The Town of Barnstable

Has anyone heard any updates?

 

[Sparky123]

$10 bucks an hour, are they serious? When was that job posted 20 plus years ago?

 

[Uzi2]

I just noticed there is a job posting for a Barnstable range attendant shown here: Jobs

But unless I'm looking right at it and just not seeing it, it does not appear to be here: Official Website of The Town of Barnstable

Has anyone heard any updates?

Sounds like Barnstable is turning the range into a pay to play venue like the state did to Walden Pond........ruined.

$10 an hour.......probably to sit in some non-air-conditioned shack at the end of the driveway. That will be nice in the middle of summer....Not!

They need an attendant there to curb the roadside dumping more than to supervise range activities.

 

[Quite_Exasperated]

Eh, at least it‘s a place to shoot down there without having to deal with the fudds who are put out at you asking the for the privilege of joining their club…how long do you generally stay anyway…put on all your camo gear, blast a few clips, a few tactical rolls, leave your targets up, wave your muzzle around like you’re epileptic, a few quick cross draw fast fire drills, steal everyone else’s brass, drive over the lawn, then you’re out of there

 

[ReluctantDecoy]

$10 bucks an hour, are they serious? When was that job posted 20 plus years ago?

Seriously. That's nuts. How are they even posting that wage when MA minimum wage is $13.50? I bet they're hoping some retired person who likes guns will end up taking the position to keep them busy during the day.

 

[WanMan99]

I would take it if I was retired. Then I would corner the market on brass hoarding...

 

[p..]

Seriously. That's nuts. How are they even posting that wage when MA minimum wage is $13.50?

Good point. Since it is not up on the town site itself, I'm starting to think it must just be an old job posting that for some reason still pops up in a third party search engine.

 

[45collector]

I took a walk up to the firing lines a few weeks ago while I was in that area and had time to kill. There are pine trees growing all over the place right in front of where you'd be shooting! I held a key/card there from about 1997 until they shut it down in 2012.

 

[Noreaster13]

Last I heard of the range was that it's in control of the PD