By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A conflict over the qualifying shooting range that has been shared by the Reno County Sheriff's Office and the Hutchinson Police Department became public Tuesday at the Hutchinson City Council meeting.
"The facility is lacking," said Hutchinson Police Chief Jeff Hooper. "We cannot do some of the training that we need to do for our organization and some of our development out there. From the city's perspective, we want the ability to develop that property to be able to expand the training that we do out there. The contract with the county was expired."
Sheriff Darrian Campbell noted that the range becoming available to law enforcement was the idea of the Sheriff's office back in the 1980s.
"In the mid-1980s, Sheriff Jim Fountain, Undersheriff Jay Koontz and there was a Lieutenant in the reserve program, Jim Yeager, worked together with the city and created this lease to start our firearms program. They created the range. The sherriff's office FOP supported that and funded projects out there to build the range house, to build other aspects, the berm, there was a tower that was there at one time. As we were moving forward to build a better range facility for everybody, it sounds like we were kind of being cut out of the puzzle."
Chief Hooper said their intent is not for each entity to have its own range.
"The city is going to make the improvements, but we'll still allow the county to use it, unfettered access to it," Hooper said. "Any improvements that we make out there, the county will still be able to utilize the improvements and so it's really a win-win for everybody. We're able to expand the facility in a manner that helps us advance our training and the needs of the police department and the county will benefit from all those improvements out there, because they, too, will have that asset and resource available to them."
Campbell wasn't sure that was a deal his department was willing to make as of Wednesday.
"We're still going to maintain our firearms instruction," Campbell said. "The firearms program that the sheriff's office has and has built up over the years is an excellent program. Just as a carpenter masters his hammer, in law enforcement, we've got to master our weapons. We do have an MOU that we have signed with the Department of Corrections. We have been in contact with them, however, we don't want to be a burden, either."
Campbell made it clear that when his agency is asked to assist with any call in the county, they are more than willing to do so.