Council approves range

The Green River City Council approved a request for State Lands and Investment Board funding to build a shooting range in the new Green River Police Department building.

The request will now go to the Sweetwater County Commissioners for final approval before being sent to the SLIB board.

The commissioners and SLIB are needed to approve the request because the range construction utilizes county-wide consensus block grant funding provided by the Wyoming Legislature, which requires the governing bodies representing 70 percent of the county's population to agree upon how it's spent. The request will face final approval from SLIB, a board consisting of the five top elected officials in Wyoming.

Police Chief and Interim City Administrator Chris Steffen said he doesn't anticipate installation of the $333,000 facility to begin until late spring or early summer.

The shooting range was discussed earlier this year while the council discussed possible uses for its remaining SLIB funding. The range was cut from the building project in a bid to keep construction costs down, but the basement of the facility was intentionally left vacant in order to provide space for the range. Steffen told the city council the space couldn't be used for anything besides a shooting range, because of how the space was built with that use in mind.

Previous discussion also occurred regarding if the public would be able to use the facility for their own use. At that time, Steffen said additional shooters would create more wear and tear on the facility, resulting in more frequent maintenance of the shooting range. Steffen also had reservations about allowing residents access into the bottom level of the police building, as the building was built to be a secure location. Allowing residents would impact the building's security, according to Steffen.

Steffen said the facility would allow officers an opportunity to practice without braving cold and windy conditions at the city's outdoor shooting range.

He said the range would allow the city's police force a better opportunity to practice, especially during the shorter wintertime days.