LFGC President Says Firing Range Not at Fault

Londonderry Fish and Game Club President Rick Olson said a date has yet to be set for a Town Council meeting at Londonderry Country Club to experience the noise caused by nearby firing ranges.

Olson said he remains uncomfortable about the council's decision to hold the meeting without notifying his club first.

He told Londonderry Patch that the true source of gun noise is likely people who are shooting in the Musquash Conservation Area or power line corridors, and not his range.

Olson said that Londonderry Country Club owner Tom Kimball has raised issue for years about the noise.

"We have 700 members and a considerable number of those members reside in Londonderry," Olson said. "If (the town acts) against our club they are acting against a sizable portion of the interest of their own residents."

During a Sept. 10 meeting of the Town Council, Kimball said that people are always calling up complaining about the nearby shooting, and that the situation continues to impact his business.

"Kimball has never reached out to us, and certainly we have reached out to him," Olson said. "He just ignores us."

Olson said that the club has been in the area since 1972. He said that from the golf course, gunfire from his range can be heard, but he said it doesn't rise to the level where it should bother people.

"Between us and Kimball's golf course is a lot of forestation," Olson said. "It works as a sound barrier."

He said that the noise is about 25 to 30 decibels by the time it reaches the private golf course, which he equated to the decibel level of a person talking.

The primary focus of the meeting started as Kimball's complaints about noise from the police firing range, which was built in 2008 and is also nearby. The Fish and Game Club has four firing ranges close to the course, but Olson said that they are actually closer to a course in Litchfield.

Olson said that since the meeting, Kimball has also complained to the press about the Fish and Game ranges.

Kimball told councilors at the meeting that he has fought on the issue for a while, even presenting a warrant article in 1990 to ban outdoor shooting ranges, which was defeated.

Fish and Game Club range usage varies depending on the day, according to Olson. Yesterday, he said there were about five shooters at the 25-yard range and one at the 100-yard range between the hours of 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. He said that users tend to spike between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. when people are getting out of work.

The range is open from 8 a.m. until a half hour after sunset.

While Olson said that the police department doesn't track shooting complaints, he said that former Police Chief Joseph Ryan told him in 2008 that there were three complaints in a three-year span.

As state law currently stands, Olson said that no ordinance can be passed to curb the activity at the shooting range.

"Say they could pass an ordinance to make us shoot less, let's say they did this," Olson said. "You still have the issue of people going into the Musquash and the power lines."