Thetford
The move signaled an end, for now, to an at times intense debate between the Selectboard, club members and other residents whose properties border the club’s gun range, located near Thetford Center.
After approving and signing the lease and memorandum of understanding early last week, the Selectboard awaited the club members’ signatures, which came Thursday.
The current range agreement was set to expire over the weekend, and if it had, the club could have been forced to cease operation.
“We were put in a position where we had two options,” club President David Goodrich said via email on Tuesday. “Option No. 1 was to not sign the lease, which would most likely have led to the club being forced to dissolve. Option No. 2 was to sign the lease and try to make the best of a very bad deal.”
Goodrich didn’t elaborate on why he felt the gun club got the short end of the stick, and subsequent attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.
In February, the Selectboard sent the club approved versions of the lease and MOU documents, which included a compromise of what club members and neighbors wanted.
But club members never signed the documents, and instead sought to reduce regulations, including doing away with a one shot per second rule and allowing high-caliber ammunition.
Club members and neighbors met with the Selectboard on April 25 to again hash out the documents.
Several neighbors said they felt it was unfair for the Selectboard to continue negotiations, considering the board already agreed to a set of documents in February.
Selectboard members were mixed on what to do at last week’s meeting, but ultimately voted to send slightly modified versions of the documents back to the gun club.
“I felt it was the best compromise that we could come up with at this stage,” Selectboard Chairman Stuart Rogers said in a telephone interview this week. “I was appreciative of how both sides offered different things.”
The lease will be in effect for the next 10 years. The memorandum of understanding, however, is a living document.
In six to 12 months, at the request of the club or neighbors, the Selectboard can re-examine the MOU.
“We will talk about how (the agreement is working for each party),” Rogers said.
Thetford resident Ted Levin, whose property sits across the street from the range, said he is satisfied with the new agreement.
“I think this was a really valid compromise,” Levin said. “It was hard fought; there were things we wanted and we didn’t get, and there were things they wanted and they didn’t get.”
For example, Levin said, he and other neighbors wanted no shooting on Sundays.
Under the agreement, club users can use the range on the first and third Sundays of the month. No shooting will take place on the second and fourth Sundays.
“That is really great,” said Levin, who works from home. “You can be out in the garden … have family over … and now we know what days to plan (for).”
In addition, Levin said, he had hoped users would follow a “one shell in the chamber, six in the magazine” style of shooting. Before the latest agreement, users could shoot unlimited shots per second.
“It was never our intention to shut them down; I really believe that hunting is essential for the management of wildlife,” Levin said. “But (the range users) went in a whole other direction in the mid 1990s.”
The lease and MOU both parties agreed to last week represented slightly edited versions of the documents approved in February.
For example, the board clarified a new one shot per second rule that allows for more frequent firing after 5 p.m. only on Wednesdays.
The club’s use of weekend days also was amended. In the event there are five weeks in a month, club members will be able to shoot on every other fifth weekend.
Weekdays kept the same operating hours initially agreed upon.
Club members still are banned from using high-caliber ammunition and automatic weapons.
The club is in the process of presenting its environmental stewardship and range management plans to state agencies for review and approval. The stewardship plan looks at environmental-related cleanup, such as lead remediation, and the range management plan focuses on safety, with a “viewpoint toward noise,” Rogers said.
The club is making sure “we have dotted our i’s and crossed our t’s,” Goodrich said.
“I’m sure the approval timing will be contingent on the schedules and workload of the state agencies involved,” he said.
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.