A Spencer firing range has closed for the second time this year after people who live near the facility complained about safety issues.
Homeowners in a Spencer neighborhood filed a lawsuit earlier this year alleging bullets from the Precision Gun Range were entering their homes and private property. Reports from the Indiana State Police supported the community’s concerns.
The gun range never claimed responsibility for the bullets, but it did voluntarily close after a meeting with Owen County officials.
Range manager Kim Bartlett says during that first closure, the company brought in an engineering expert to evaluate its facilities.
“So we flew him out to say, ‘What do we need to do?’ And we’ve done it, and some of it we went above,” Bartlett says. “Any enhancements or recommendations he made, we completed every single one of them.”
Following those recommendations, the range raised a berm by three feet and installed new baffles on the windows. It then reopened to the public last week.
But the Owen County zoning board voted Tuesday to shut the facility down again.
Board member Robin Cooper says the range opened up again without coming to the board to verify enough work had been done. She says she and the other board members want to see an independent inspection verifying that the range is safe before it’s opened up again.
“We closed it just based on the fact that was her own independent consultant, and we need more independent results,” Cooper says.
Cooper says the board just wants to make sure it’s protecting the members of the community.
Bartlett says the gun range also wants people to feel safe. She says they’re working hard to resolve the issue.
“We are not taking this lightly,” Bartlett says. “We are not. We are doing everything that we know possible to do.”
Bartlett says the range is waiting to hear from the board members on what they need in order to approve the range reopening.
