Columbus Mayor Robert Smith sent a letter to the president of the Lowndes County board of supervisors on April 28, saying he and city councilmen feel a Yorkville Road firing range built with county and city funds should be operated and managed by the city.
Harry Sanders, board president, presented the letter to the board during its meeting Monday. Supervisors ultimately voted against the city’s wishes, saying the county will operate and maintain the firing range.
“We’ll run it, maintain it,” Sanders said. “We’ll pay for the utilities, maintenance and personnel ourselves and won’t bill the city anything.”
County and city officials have said the range is to benefit Columbus Air Force Base, as well as local law enforcement for training missions and certification. It would be open to the general public when available, officials have said. A ribbon-cutting ceremony at the range is scheduled for Friday.
Smith, in his letter to Sanders, said he had discussed the firing range matter with each member of the city council.
“It is the unanimous opinion of the Columbus City Council, and I totally agree with them, that the small arms firing range should be operated and managed by the City of Columbus,” it reads.
Smith goes on in the letter to say he proposes that Columbus Police Chief Tony Carleton assign an officer to manage the new facility. He goes on to say that the city would be responsible for the facility’s upkeep and utilities, and that the city would bill the county half of all costs at the end of each fiscal year.
Sanders, on Monday, said he strongly opposed the city’s proposal to operate the firing range.
“There are two reasons,” he said. “First, the county has put in most of the money. We’ve put in $118,000 more in cash and $43,000 more in in-kind services than the city put in. Second, the sheriff’s department has three certified trainers and the city police department doesn’t have any, to my knowledge, but they want to take over the training.”
Sanders said the company that built the range had helped train people to operate and maintain equipment at the range.
“(The sheriff’s department) had people at that training, but the police department didn’t send anybody,” he said. “The company said that if the people who are running the equipment didn’t go to the training, it could possibly void the warranty. When you look at everything, I just don’t understand why the city all of a sudden wants to take over the firing range…where is this coming from? I had to think it’s coming from the mayor.”
Sanders told The Dispatch this morning he does not believe the range will be much of an expense to operate, mainly because of fees that will be charged to other agencies who use it.
“We might have a little extra expense from utilities after all is said and done,” he said, “but I don’t think it will be much.”
Supervisor Leroy Brooks made the motion for the county to operate and maintain the firing range at its own expense. Sanders seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
Smith told The Dispatch on Monday that the city and county split the $200,000 to purchase the land and building for the firing range. He also noted that the range is in the city limits. Smith said he’d like to see the city and county sit down and work together for a better solution and suggested, at the very least, both entities hire someone to work at the firing range.
“I’m an optimist,” Smith said. “I believe the board of supervisors is a group of reasonable people. Involving the press in this situation isn’t going to solve it. It’s only going to make it worse.”
Carleton told The Dispatch he and Lowndes County Sheriff Mike Arledge had met about sharing management of the shooting range. Carleton said that after that meeting he reported to Smith that the sheriff’s department wanted to be the lead agency.
Carleton did not comment on which department he preferred to take the lead, but said however the issue concluded, he wanted to work appropriately with the sheriff to operate the range.
“Whatever the city council decides, I’m going to work with that,” the chief said.
Originally, plans for the shooting range called for a 25-meter facility for which the city and county would evenly split a $406,000 bill. An MDA grant added to the funding of the project, according to Billingsley. However, he said when Columbus Air Force Base asked for the project to accommodate both a 25- and 100-meter range, the county pitched in an extra $118,000. Billingsley added that the county had contributed $70,000 in in-kind labor at the site, compared to the city’s $27,000.
The supervisors’ decision did not set well with some Columbus councilmen, chiefly Ward 3’s Charlie Box.
Box said he didn’t necessarily have a problem with the county being the lead agency, although he considered that “a little strange” since the shooting range is in the city limits. But he took issue with the supervisors voting to take on managing the entire situation without city support or personnel.
“That might bring on a lot more conversations,” Box said.
Box said the county’s decision — coupled with the supervisors’ move to reconfigure the E-911 board, a move that will leave the city without a vote at the E-911 board table — indicated the county’s unwillingness to work with the city. In fact, Box said the supervisors’ decision not to allow the police and fire chief a vote on the E-911 board is worse than their position on the shooting range.
“They want to do all these interlocal agreements and then they pull crap like this,” Box said. “They’re setting us (the city) up to have an adversarial relationship with the county. That’s kind of sad, and I think part of it is because it’s a political year and people are trying to make names for themselves.”
Dispatch reporter Zack Plair contributed to this report.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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