By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
The Jacksonville shooting range will likely open in late October rather than the hoped-for Oct. 1 completion date, but that didn’t stop it from being the talk of the recent Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation banquet.
At its Outdoor Hall of Fame Friday, the Game and Fish Foundation committed to raise $50,000 specifically for a memorial trap house at the shooting range.
The trap house will honor fallen Arkansas Game and Fish Commission employees. The Outdoor Hall Fame sponsor, National Wild Turkey Federation has promised to provide $10,000 toward the idea.
The promised $50,000 is part of a $2 million pledge of support from the foundation to build the state-of-the-art $3 million facility.
The 160-acre sport-shooting and archery range at the intersection of Loop Road and Graham Road will officially be called the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation Shooting Sports Complex because of the foundation’s financial support.
Mayor Gary Fletcher is pleased with the foundation’s continued support of the project and said the shooting range was the topic of choice at the hall of fame banquet. Parks Director Kevin House was at the banquet and said everyone was excited about the range and “couldn’t wait for it to open.”
Work is running behind the hoped-for completion date. Original plans called for it to open Sept. 1, but now city officials are looking at October.
“Even that is a push,” said the mayor. “I use to build houses for a living and this thing is a lot more complicated.”
House is optimistic in saying it will be four to six weeks before everything is ready. “But I don’t want to lock in a date yet,” he said.
Fletcher said more important than hitting the Oct. 1 date is that it is done right.
Painters are working inside the range, but both Fletcher and House said there is still a lot to be done on the outside. “Crews are out there working daily,” House said.
That fact that the area has seen very little rain over the past month has helped the project move forward. “Here I have to water my plants because of the lack of rain, praying that it doesn’t rain soon so work can continue,” the mayor said.
The construction is being funded through a $3 million short-term loan to the city.
The mayor said as the foundation sends its pledges to the city, that money will be used to pay off the loan. Also the city’s advertising and promotion commission is holding back $225,000 to be used either on the facility or to help pay off the loan.
House and the recently selected range manager Matt Killebrew, a six-year employee with parks and recreation, attended a high school meeting of sport shooting coaches Saturday.
“There were about 50 or so coaches at the meeting and we have about 800 teams in the state,” House said, adding that “the coaches asked a lot of questions and wanted to know when they could start booking times at the new facility.”
Hopefully soon, House said.