A hike in fees at police firing range doesn't comfort neighbors

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]All is quiet out on the eastern front of the city, out at Don Sedrel's hobby farm along the Cedar River on Old River Road SE.[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]For the moment.[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]Next door, the Police Department's regional outdoor firing range shuts down in January, February and March when the berm into which officers fire is frozen and can send bullets ricocheting.[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]“We have a lot of nice silence right now,” Sedrel 

says.[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]But that will change with the weather, and the noise will start in again.[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]Do the math, he says. A shift of 40 officers shooting 200 rounds each is 8,000 rounds, says Sedrel, who has objected to what had been small police shooting range and what has become a busy, regional one with no noise buffers for those who live around it.[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]“People have no idea how much noise that is,” he says.[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]On Monday, Sedrel, a retired Cedar Rapids firefighter, was asked if he took at least a little bit of comfort knowing that the city is imposing increased fees on the outside agencies that now use the firing range. The noise will at least mean a little more revenue for the city to which he pays taxes.[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]“No, not at all,” he says of the new fees. “I've listened to it for 38 years. I've had everything from having a horse shot, to blowing up cars, to having a car hood land in my hay field.”[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]The new fees have prompted a letter of objection from the Iowa Medical Classification Center, the state prison in Oakdale in Johnson County.[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]In a letter to the city, Greg Ort, deputy warden, objects to a fee of $1,000 for the two months the prison's security guards use the city range for training. He notes that the prison at Oakdale helped renovate the range with material, inmate labor and supervision several years ago with the thought the staff could use the range when needed.[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]“I am a resident of Cedar Rapids, I know that the city is experiencing some budget difficulty …” Ort says. 'However, the agreement between the (prison) and the Cedar Rapids Police Department is a positive example of interagency cooperation, cost effective use of resources and protection of staff and the public. …”[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]Firing-range neighbor Sedrel doesn't see it that way. And he says it's not just the racket of relentless gunfire. He notes that new housing has gone up in the area in recent years, some of it down range from the shooting.[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]Bruce Kern, a Cedar Rapids police captain, notes that the increased fee at the range for the Oakdale prison is a single fee for all state agencies that use the range. All the law enforcement entities in Johnson County that use the range will pay one, similar increased fee under the new fee structure, Kern says.[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]In some part because of Sedrel's complaints about the police range, the Linn County Sheriff's Office has built a new outdoor gun range at the Matsell Bridge Natural Area north of Viola. The Marion Police Department, which does limited shooting at the Cedar Rapids range, also will be moving to the Matsell site.[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]The city of Iowa City also has been looking to establish its own gun range in Johnson County.[/naviga:font]

[naviga:font face="Calibri"]In addition, Sedrel has asked the state's Office of Citizens' Aide/Ombudsman to investigate safety, environmental and zoning issues related to the range. [/naviga:font][naviga:font face="Calibri"]Sedrel says the state agency is currently discussing matters with the city.[/naviga:font][naviga:font face="Calibri"] [/naviga:font]