Time running out to donate to gun range project
By Barbara LaBoe / The Daily News
Time is running out to donate to the proposed shooting range near Castle Rock, but organizers hope the troubled project can still be saved.
Two recent notable donations include $10,000 from Bob’s Sporting Goods owners Bob and Matt Schlect and a pledge from Watkins Tractor to handle half of the dirt work at the site. An overall tally of other donations wasn’t available Thursday, but organizers say they’re still far from their goal.
“We have not had the resounding clap of thunder I was hoping for,” said Joseph Hull of Horsley Timber and Construction, who is organizing the fundraising campaign launched in June. His employers, Greg and Michelle Horsley, have pledged $100,000 in work toward the project.
Supporters need to raise another $260,000 by Aug. 1 to keep the long-planned Cowlitz Game & Anglers project alive. The range appeared doomed in May, when Cowlitz County officials decided they couldn’t pledge more money for construction. Hull hopes to raise the difference to keep the project going.
And Cowlitz Game & Anglers President Dick Miller said he believes the Bob’s donation will “open the gate for more donations from gun owners and civic-minded groups.” Miller also noted that a public gun range remains the number one priority of the county’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.
If supporters can meet their fundraising goal, that money would be combined with a $140,000 county loan and other donations and grants to build both phases of the range for $609,000.
Special permit conditions require both phases of the project be completed by May 2014, and donations and pledges are needed by Aug. 1 to get the work done on time.
In addition to cash donations, Hull is hoping to coordinate pledges of equipment and work from area contractors to finish the project.
“We need the timber companies and the rock suppliers, the concrete outfits, the contractors,” Hull said. “And we need to hear soon or we’ll just have to let it go. ... It would be sad if we got to that point.”
The project at the end of Toutle Park Road on county-owned land has been fought by neighbors, who say it would destroy their peaceful country setting. Supporters say the county needs a public shooting range and that the range would decrease illegal shooting near the site.
Monetary donations can be mailed to the Cowlitz Game & Anglers Range Project, PO Box 1061, Longview, WA 98632. Pledges or work or equipment can be coordinated with Hull at: josephhull24@gmail.com.
