DC Facilities Committee approves night shoot at Colfax Shooting Range in September
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Dunn County Facilities Committee has given approval for a night shoot at the Colfax Shooting Range September 24.
The Colfax Sportsmen’s Club has done quite a lot of work out at the shooting range, said Scott Nabbefeld, director of the Dunn County Facilities Department, at the facilities committee meeting July 20.
The president of the Colfax Sportsmen’s Club contacted Nabbefeld about holding a night shoot September 24.
The sportsmen’s club will check with the Town of Colfax as well. The shooting range is normally open until 10 p.m., and for the night shoot, the club would like the range to be open until midnight. This is a one-time event, Nabbefeld said.
Michael Rogers, county board supervisor from Menomonie and chair of the facilities committee, asked if there would be any legal issues with allowing the night shoot until midnight.
Nabbefeld said there were no legal issues that he was aware of.
Donald Kuether, county board supervisor from Menomonie and a member of the facilities committee, asked about the reason for wanting the shooting range to be open until midnight.
Nabbefeld said he did not have many details about the event and did not know why the sportsmen’s club was asking for two additional hours.
Several facilities committee members pointed out that by September, the sun will set long before 10 p.m. and that there would be quite a few hours of darkness by midnight.
Kuether said he would be concerned the facilities committee would be sanctioning something that the neighbors would not be happy about.
The nearest house is probably a half mile away, Nabbefeld said.
Kuether noted that the Menomonie Police Department has a shooting range about a half mile from his home and that he can hear the shots being fired.
Does the facilities committee have to make a decision today? asked Ron Score, county board supervisor from Boyceville and a member of the facilities committee.
The sportsmen’s club is going to ask the Colfax Town Board about the night shoot, so the facilities committee could make the approval contingent upon approval from the Town of Colfax, Kuether said.
The sportsmen’s club generally asks for approval for something that is out of the ordinary. Nabbefeld noted.
One facilities committee member asked about the night of the week on September 24.
September 24 is on a Saturday, Nabbefeld said.
Score said as far as he was concerned, “They can shoot all they want.”
The Colfax Shooting Range is located several miles south of Colfax and east of state Highway 40 on 810th Avenue.
Rogers said he imagined that since the shooting range is in a rural area, there are not many complaints about it.
The facilities department does not get very many calls complaining about noise, Nabbefeld said.
Is facilities committee approval only a courtesy? Kuether asked, adding that he imagined the Colfax Sportsmen’s Club would proceed even if the facilities committee did not give approval.
Dunn County owns the property, and the Colfax Shooting Range is part of the county’s facilities, Nabbefeld said.
The Dunn County Facilities Committee unanimously approved the proposal from the Colfax Sportsmen’s Club to hold a night shoot on September 24 contingent upon approval from the Colfax Town Board.
The Dunn County Facilities Committee will meet next on September 28.
