Thetford
Under the new terms, club members still will be banned from using high-caliber ammunition and automatic weapons at the range. The board agreed to clarify a one shot per second rule, allowing for more frequent firing on Wednesday nights.
More than two dozen people filled Town Hall for continued discussion on whether to rewrite the documents.
In February, the Selectboard signed versions of both the lease and memorandum of understanding and sent them to the club for approval. Club members, however, never signed the documents, and instead went back to the board earlier this month seeking further negotiations on specific provisions.
The Selectboard Monday night voted to send the lease back to the club as it was approved in February, save for a minor tweak allowing the club to regulate access to a fishing pond on the property. The lease passed through the board much more smoothly than the memorandum of understanding, which took hits from all parties in attendance.
The board also unanimously voted to send a slightly revised MOU back to the club for signatures.
The current agreement expires on Sunday; if the new lease and MOU are not signed by both parties, the range could be forced to cease operation.
For more than two hours, the Selectboard, club members and neighbors of the range discussed various aspects of the MOU, which governs what members can and can’t do on the property. Points of contention included whether to lift a proposed ban on the use of .50-caliber ammunition and allow users to shoot more than one shot per second.
Under the document sent back to the club on Monday, the ban on .50-caliber ammunition stays. An edit was made that allows users to shoot more than one shot per second, but only after 5 p.m. on Wednesdays. Automatic weapons aren’t allowed.
The board also amended the club’s use of weekend days. Club members will be allowed to shoot only on the first and third weekends. In the event that there are five weeks in a month, club members will be able to shoot on every other fifth weekend. Weekdays will keep the same operating hours initially agreed to in the February document.
“The Selectboard spent a lot of time on this … then we had the club come back because they didn’t like this; it doesn’t seem to be fair for the Selectboard to now back off on this,” neighbor Ford von Reyn said.
Gun club member Bill Huff felt differently. He said some of what the neighbors were asking for — such as a ban on .50-caliber ammunition — would be hard to enforce and thus should be thrown out.
“The only way it is going to come to an end is to have something definitive and enforceable,” Huff said.
The memorandum of understanding is a “living document,” meaning it can be updated or changed as the years go on, Selectboard Chairman Stuart Rogers said. Once signed, however, the lease remains in effect for 10 years.
The Selectboard plans to sign both the lease and memorandum of understanding today. Upper Valley Fish and Game Club President David Goodrich said he would swing by Town Hall today to pick up the documents.
Several neighbors who live near the club expressed that their main concern was noise, which one neighbor said had worsened over the last six years.
At the end of the hourslong debate, neighbor Jim Ziem made it clear that Thetford residents who live near the gun range aren’t alone in their fight for peace and quiet.
“This is happening all over the Upper Valley,” Ziem said.
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.