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Cooper Landing marksmen get a new range

For years, the Cooper Landing Gun Club has been looking for a new home. Its current location on Bean Hill Road is the oldest organized shooting range in the state.

Which means the small town has grown up around the range. At its meeting this week, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly signed off on a new lease for the gun club to a spot about halfway between Cooper Landing and Tern Lake.

 

“As some of you know, it’s been a long journey to get to this point. Our range has been operating since the 1940’s and it is time to relocate. I hope that you’ll support these ordinances as we as a club are committed to doing the fundraising and doing everything necessary to get us relocated to this new property and do the clean up at our current range as well," said club president Laura Johnson.

The new range is about 66 acres a few miles east of town. The ordinances before the assembly that would facilitate the move amended the Cooper Landing land use plan and set the terms for the lease. The club will get access to the land for a dollar a year for 20 years. But those numbers didn’t sit well with everyone on the assembly.

“I feel that $1 a year on a $220,000 piece of property is kind of absurd," said assembly member Paul Fischer.

 

In these days of tight budgets, he wondered, is it wise to be more or less giving away borough land to community groups? He tried to propose an amendment making the terms of the lease at least $600 a year.

“Which is something, because we keep talking about how broke (the borough) is. I can’t go to that gun club without being a member. I can’t use it. But I think $50 a month, $600 a year on a $220,000 piece of property plus any buildings that go up are tax free. So that’s my amendment.”

And, he says, things change. Fischer pointed to the borough’s school funding, which it used to provide to the state cap, but no longer does.

“I voted for the $1 a year for the snow club. But I’ve changed. Because I see that we don’t have the money we used to have. I know, 50 bucks a month, you say ah, that’s nothing. Well then, why not go with it? A dollar (annual lease) and then we go to the public and say we’re going to cut this and cut that...is just ridiculous. Fifty dollars I think is not unreasonable. I think it should be a lot more. I started at $100. So I came down 50 percent.”

But, such deals are pretty common around the borough and for a variety of groups and organizations, says assembly member Dale Bagely.

“I think we have a history of doing this for other gun ranges, leasing them the land in the past. I know we’ve certainly done many other leases to both other governmental entities as well as non-profits over the years. I don’t think we should change our policy and what our policy has been.”

The amendment failed and the ordinance passed on the original terms, but it did spark some debate. There’s not much in borough code to direct how these leases should go and under what terms. It’s left mostly to the discretion of the assembly, but both the assembly and borough staff seem interested in potentially codifying those lease terms for future projects.