The Enfield Outing Club, which recently underwent a change in leadership, is hoping that it can start living up to its name. How good would that be?
By definition, an outing club offers members a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities. In the case of the Enfield Outing Club that means, among other things, using its 4-acre site for snowshoeing and archery. It also means taking advantage of nearby Mascoma Lake for canoeing and kayaking.
But I think it’s fair to say the club, which dates back to the 1930s, went off the rails for a while. The nonprofit organization was acting primarily as a firing range — in a residential neighborhood, no less. (Since it was operating long before the town implemented its zoning ordinance, the club was grandfathered in.)
To raise money, the club opened up its range to out-of-state firearms instructors. Neighbors spoke of guys running around in body armor and helmets with assault-style rifles. In 2015, the club hosted a four-day class in armed self-defense by a Florida-based group that required participants to bring at least 500 rounds of ammunition.
The outing club’s reputation sank so low that Enfield police stopped using the range for training because “things were getting too politicized,” then-chief Dick Crate told Valley News staff writer Jordan Cuddemi in 2016.
In January 2016, neighbor Donald Plante, who has lived across from the club on Shaker Hill Road for 30 years, asked Grafton Superior Court to curb the club’s activities.
Plante and other neighbors (who were not part of the lawsuit) complained that shooting enthusiasts who preferred assault-style weapons over traditional hunting rifles were not only noisier but more dangerous. They worried about stray bullets flying into the busy road, which is used by walkers, joggers and bicyclists.
“I don’t want anybody to get shot,” Plante said after filing his lawsuit. “I don’t want (the club) to be able to grow without some sort of control.”
In November 2017, the two sides reached an out-of-court-settlement. Along with scaling back the range’s hours of operation, the club agreed to erect a wooden wall between the range and Shaker Hill Road.
The wall, which was completed last November, would make Donald Trump proud. (And, with club members providing most of the labor, it cost only about $15,000). Made of solid oak, the wall stands 16 feet tall and stretches 184 feet. Under the agreement, the club hired an acoustical engineering consultant to help with construction.
How’s it all working?
So far, so good, said Plante, a registered nurse. “I commend them for doing what they’ve done,” he said. “It’s nice to know that when you go out to the mailbox, you don’t have to feel like you’re going to catch lead.”
But the wall isn’t the only major change at the club, which has more than 100 members. “It’s got a long history that involves more than just firearms and that’s what we want to get back to,” club president Kevin Howard told me. “Not that firearms are going away. It will still be a safe place to go so people don’t have to (target) shoot in their backyards.”
Howard, who retired to Enfield a decade ago after 30 years in the Air Force, took over as president last spring. Howard has experience in teaching kayaking and fly fishing. He hopes to bring those pursuits to the club, along with adding more youth programs to complement its Granite State Sharp Shooters.
“I want it to be an outing club again,” Howard said.
The club is working with the town’s recreation department and Police Chief Roy Holland to establish a youth archery program. “I’ve heard great things about the direction they’re going,” said Holland, an avid bow hunter.
Dave Stewart, who served as president for nine years before resigning last spring, remains an active member. “After everything got resolved with the neighbors, it was time for me to step aside and let others take over,” he said. “It’s always been member-driven, so wherever people want to put their energies is where it will go.”
The club’s leadership has known for a while that it needed to start “tightening things up” at the range, Stewart told me. During his watch, video cameras were installed and range safety officers underwent training.
“Some people don’t like the outing club, but we’re part of the community,” Stewart said. “It was time for the outing club to re-establish itself in the community.”
As much progress as the club has made, I think it still has a ways to go. I saw on the club’s website that it’s currently running a fundraising raffle in which the winner gets an Omni Hybrid Maxx AR-15 — a semi-automatic rifle with a 30-round magazine.
In talking with Howard, I couldn’t hide my bias against assault-style weapons. (The 19-year-old shooter accused of killing 17 people and wounding 14 others at a high school in Parkland, Fla., last February used an AR-15.)
If the Enfield Outing Club wants to give away a weapon, wouldn’t a traditional hunting firearm make a better choice? Perhaps a Browning single-shot 12-gauge or a Ruger .30-06 bolt action?
But Howard stuck to his guns. The AR-15 is “well-built, accurate and fun to shoot,” he said.
Still, it seems an inappropriate choice for an outing club trying to improve its standing in the community and expand its horizons beyond a firing range.
But I guess it depends on which side of the wall you stand.
Jim Kenyon can be reached at jkenyon@vnews.com.