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Cinder pit transformed into shooting range
Kaibab forest grants conditional use permit

<br>Ryan Williams/WGCN<br>
Bob McCarty points out the pistol bays from atop the range master's station at the shooting range located at the cinder pit north of I-40.

<br>Ryan Williams/WGCN<br> Bob McCarty points out the pistol bays from atop the range master's station at the shooting range located at the cinder pit north of I-40.

WILLIAMS - The city of Williams was recently granted a conditional use permit from the Kaibab National Forest to host shooting events at the cinder pit located on the west side of Highway 64 approximately a half mile north of Interstate 40. The pit has been used as a shooting range for a number of years for training purposes by law enforcement agencies including the Williams Police Department, DPS and Coconino County Sheriff's Office, but has not been open for public use.

The city of Williams Parks and Recreation Commission hopes to bring shooting events back to town and create a shooting range open for public use at least one day per week. A Range Advisory Committee has been created in order to draft a five-year plan for development of the shooting facility.

Rose Newbold, Recreation Director for the city of Williams, said the city will benefit from developing the range.

"Once Buckskinner Park was shut down for shooting events, we lost those events in town, we lost the ability of the city of Williams to reap the benefits of people coming up from the Valley to those events," she said. "So we have been working very diligently with the Forest Service. We need to be able to bring back our events for the betterment of the community to keep people coming into town. We are basically a hunting community, so we need a place to do safe training and sight in days and those types of things."

Dirt work has been completed at the cinder pit, dividing the area into a rifle bay, four pistol bays and one archery bay. A Single Action Shooting Society competitive event has already been held at the location. Bob McCarty, Range Advisory Committee Chairman, said the cowboy shooting group will be back again next year.

"They think that next year they'll have like 250 shooters. They were very pleased with the facility," McCarty said.

McCarty explained that the five-year plan will be developed in cooperation with the Forest Service in order to stay within the parameters of the use permit. In order to open the facility to the public, the Advisory Committee will need to train volunteers to staff the shooting range and monitor activity.

"One of the short term plans is to train sufficient range safety officers to keep the range open. Our first goal would be to keep the range open for public shooting at least one day a weekend," McCarty said.

Volunteers will be required to be an NRA certified range safety officer, police firearms instructor or civilian firearms instructor. McCarty said the Range Committee is currently accepting the names of those interested in becoming volunteer range safety officers. Training will be arranged as soon as enough individuals have expressed interest.

The Committee is hoping to obtain an NRA Foundation Grant for range development. McCarty said the range could provide valuable resources to area hunters.

"Another thing we want to provide are sighting in days to keep people from sighting their deer rifle in out in the woods somewhere," he said. "That's a joint goal of us and the Forest Service law enforcement. We hope to have the range open with people that are expert in calibrating rifles. So hunters can sight in and be ready if they're miraculously drawn for elk."

Range Advisory Commission members include Patty Williams, Jay Redfeather, Kevin and Melinda Kelly, Lee Payne, Tom d'Allura and Mike Philips.

For more information about becoming a volunteer range safety officer, call Bob McCarty at the Williams Police Department, 635-4461.


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