Is Sweetwater County interested in being the home of a shooting sports complex?
That's the question Sweetwater Commissioner Island Richards has been asking himself more and more lately.
Bringing a state of the art shooting sports facility to Wyoming has been a state-wide subject of discussion since the beginning of the year, when Senate File Bill 169 was introduced and passed during the legislative session, creating the State Shooting Complex Development and Oversight Task Force. One of the goals of the task force is to "develop a framework for the selection of a location for the Wyoming state shooting complex," according to the bill.
The bill also created a state shooting complex account and appropriated $10 million for it, with $5 million coming from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, $2.5 million coming from the Wyoming tourism reserve and projects account, and another $2.5 million allocated from the Wyoming Game and Fish fund.
Another task force goal laid out in the bill was to "develop a request for proposals so that local governments, private sector entities or a combination of both may submit proposals to be considered for the location of the Wyoming state shooting complex."
Finding a way to bring the shooting complex to Sweetwater Count was something the Board of County Commissioners was interested in early on. Commissioner Richards in particular stepped up to lead the efforts to keep up with the task force and help find ways to put the county forward for consideration as a location.
After months of attending task force committee meetings, having conversations, and looking for public input, however, Richards is starting to feel less optimistic.
"To be honest, I'm a bit disillusioned with the whole process," Richards admitted to his fellow commissioners during his comments for the November 21 meeting.
Richards said he attended the recent task force committee meeting on November 17 in Cody. He reported that the task force committee published their request for letters of interest the previous week, and everyone has until March 1, 2024 to submit one.
"While they're calling it a letter of interest, they actually are expecting quite a bit of information in it, and it will take some significant time and resources to complete it," Richards said.
The Recreations Facility Committee had plans to discuss the letter of interest and to start working to make a plan for a response.
However, Richards is frustrated by the way the task force will consider proposals. He said the committee's messaging to communities wanting to pursue the shooting sports complex has been "mixed at best." The committee has said they want applicants to have flexibility in their proposals, while also developing a scoring system specifically designed to eliminate applicants, according to Richards. The task force committee has also said that even if a community scores highly with a proposal, the location still may not be chosen without "some sort of ethereal 'wow factor' that they keep talking about," Richards added.
"To be honest I think they've the cart before the horse and are trying to put Wyoming communities in an arena to compete with each other without giving us a real indication of what it will take to win and really even what benefit it will bring to the community that gets it," Richards said.
Chairman Keaton West noted that he couldn't imagine traveling all the way to Cody as Richards did for the recent State Shooting Complex Task Force meeting since it was "very frustrating to watch." The meetings are livestreamed and are available to watch on YouTube.
"It just seems like it's a very over-complicated process to get to the end result," West said of the shooting complex situation, telling Richards "I share the same concern and outlook as you on that."
Richards added that he is also starting to question local interest in the shooting complex. He pointed out that one thing he has seen at the task force meetings is involvement from community shooting groups across the state.
"They're taking it upon themselves to go to these meetings, to advocate on behalf of their communities, and I'm not seeing any such thing from Sweetwater County," Richards said. "It makes me wonder if there's even any interest in pursuing this from shooting sports in Sweetwater County."
Richards said he could only remember receiving one call from someone who is a member of a local shooting club since the interest in the shooting sports complex began.
"We can't carry these burdens alone," Richards said. "If people want us to pursue these things, we need to hear from them."
He also pointed out that people need to be willing to be actively involved themselves in order to make things like a local shooting sports complex become a reality.
"Something like this doesn't come to a community in a vacuum," Richards said. "People need to be involved. And if this isn't a fit for Sweetwater County, then we can look at other priorities for recreation."
Despite his concerns and frustrations, Commissioner Richards said he will continue to "stay in the loop" and see what else develops with the State Shooting Complex Task Force.
Reader Comments(0)