Take shooting range application off life support

Imagine if you will, that you have invested all of your dreams and hard-earned wealth into a rural property with plans of raising a family in a peaceful country setting; or you sold your urban home in order to retire to a tranquil property with the soothing sound of the Ashuelot River rushing by.

How satisfied would you be to learn that a potential abutter has designs on disrupting your future with a shooting range that plans to attract up to 150-200 outdoor shooters at a time? With the intent to be open and operational year round? With the majority of the shooting occurring on weekends?

Let me tell you how it feels. Gut wrenching, nerve wracking, unsettling and nightmarish! My world (and the world of my neighboring community) was shaken when we received certified letters notifying us of the applications of Ridgeline Marksmanship Park to construct its facility within the Village of Ashuelot.

Let me explain to you, as a mother, that the word “park” has a completely different meaning than what is commonly understood. As I listened to the description of the “park” by an expert shooting range designer and heard him verbalize the potential dangers, my heart burst from the thought of the sudden loss of my family’s safety. My sons and I would no longer be able to hike our property without the fear of stray or ricochet bullets.

Despite being in a public meeting, I broke down in tears. I simply could not comprehend how any intelligent human being would be willing to consider me, my family and future family as collateral damage.

I asked myself, what timber company would be willing to risk the lives of its employees to harvest my woodlot? What lumber company would accept wood that was riddled with lead? The answer is ... none!

My family and neighbors have been living with these traumatic emotions now for well over nine months. The Winchester Zoning Board of Adjustment’s decision to table the applications on March 2 did not quell any of our fears or frustrations — it only extended and enlarged them.

The chairman of the board added, after the motion passed, that the tabling had no ending date. How long must we endure the stress and anxiety of uncertainty and the inability to take any action to try to determine and protect our own futures?

I am extremely disappointed with the decision the board made at this meeting. The board’s responsibility to the residents of Winchester was to accept the letter from Ashuelot River LLC, then move to declare that the application no longer had standing to continue and was therefore nullified. It is very unsettling to wonder what could possibly motivate five individual board members to decide to put on “life support” an application that they no longer have authority to consider.

It’s not over until the fat lady sings. And I am not singing yet!

KIM N. GORDON

Ashuelot