More than 2,000 people turned out for the opening of the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation Shooting Sports Complex in Jacksonville on Saturday. About 700 more people dropped in the next day.
The $3.2 million, 160-acre facility on Graham Road looks like a state park and is a welcome addition to the city’s public facilities. It is a major project that will help raise the city’s profile.
The opening came on the last weekend of duck-hunting season, when many trap and skeet shooters were pursuing different targets. But city officials are planning a grand-opening ceremony in March, which the governor is expected to attend, just as the competitive shooting season will be gearing up. That will give officials time to put some final touches on the place and get accustomed to daily operations there.
After months of delays caused by budget problems and construction setbacks, perhaps no one is more pleased than Mayor Gary Fletcher. “I told somebody today when I drove up, I said, ‘The two great sounds of Jacksonville to me right now are C-130s flying overhead and the sounds of shotguns going off on the range,’” he told us on opening day during a visit there.
The facility is still looking for a full-time manager, and we trust the city will choose someone who is knowledgable and passionate about teaching the sport to newcomers and old pros alike.
The firing range will host the Arkansas Youth Shooting Sports Program tournaments that city officials expect will inject more than $4 million into the economy annually. At that rate, the facility could quickly pay for itself with tax revenue by attracting customers to local restaurants, hotels and other businesses.
Rep. Mark Perry (D-Jacksonville) successfully convinced the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation — a nonprofit division of the Game and Fish Commission that promotes hunting, fishing and the outdoors — to contribute $2 million for the project with the city paying the rest. Jim Peacock and Mike Wilson sold the land to the city at a substantial discount.
Perry also helped form Jacksonville High School’s shooting team. And coaches like Jerry Hill and Mary Murtishaw have been just as active in turning Cabot into one of the state’s largest youth shooting programs.
On Saturday, hundreds of young shooters — many from Cabot — came out to inaugurate the range. They will be among the thousands who compete there in the spring and summer.
Cabot has nearly 70 junior high and high school students in its shooting program, whose teams have recently won state competitions, as have teams from Beebe and Carlisle.
Jacksonville High’s shooting team is growing, and North Pulaski High School recently started shooting and archery programs, and Lonoke has also been involved in the sport for some time. Combined, these students form a sizeable and instant customer base that will immediately make the new facility a worthwhile endeavor.
Arkansas Youth Shooting Sports Program director Chuck Woodson has also been at the forefront of the project, gathering input and insight from youth shooting coaches and volunteers, who, he said, are excited about the centrally-located public facility.
That side of town has seldom received such a substantial investment. It comes just as the widening of Graham Road to four lanes has been completed. City officials are pleased with the timing of the projects’ completion, which will improve traffic and the look of the area.
Unfortunately, Google Maps recommends drivers take Loop Road when traveling from Little Rock or Cabot, a route that bypasses the widening of Graham Road on the opposite side of Loop from the shooting complex. That’s too bad if many drivers won’t take Main Street through downtown. But the fresh yellow stripes on the new black top are a welcome improvement for thousands of motorists who’ll use Graham Road.
So here’s a 21-gun salute to a project that has finally opened to enthusiastic reviews.
