Shooter limits dropped as lawsuit comes to end

COEUR d'ALENE - The parties in a lawsuit over use of the Farragut State Park gun range reached a resolution, clearing the way for the shooting facility to fully reopen and eliminating any limits on the number users.

The lawsuit, which started in 2005, was between a group called Citizens Against Range Expansion and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. CARE is made up of Bayview residents and park enthusiasts who didn't want to see the range expanded. The lawsuit had closed the range, and it was only partially reopened last summer.

"We're just really pleased that we're back in business with the shooting range," Chip Corsi, Fish and Game's Panhandle regional supervisor, said Friday.

The resolution allows Fish and Game to open a 200-yard rifle range and 50-yard pistol range, four shotgun stations and a law enforcement range, according to court documents filed Tuesday. The shotgun stations are limited to manual clay target throwers.

Last summer, a 100-yard range at the facility was opened. At that time, a limit of 500 shooters per year was placed on the shooting range. The limit has been lifted.

The 50-yard range, however, must first have overhead and side baffles installed, meeting the same safety requirements of the rifle ranges.

On the rifle ranges, only traditional ammunition is permitted, and nothing .50-caliber or greater may be used.

As the case has been litigated, the court required the state to install the safety baffles at the range, to stop errant bullets. Since 2005, the state has spent $457,000 on the range, mostly on facility safety improvements and noise reduction, Corsi said.

The range can operate for seven hours per day, starting no earlier than 9 a.m. and staying open no later than 7 p.m. Fish and Game will announce when the range will re-open later this spring.

A certified range safety officer must be present any time the range is open.

Also as part of the resolution, Fish and Game agreed not to expand beyond this use for 25 years.

At the urging of 1st District Court Judge John Mitchell, the parties entered mediation with Coeur d'Alene attorney Peter Erbland, which led to the resolution.

"Both sides left their extremes and arrived in the middle," said attorney Harvey Richman, of Bayview, who represented CARE. "As a result of our efforts, we have a fully baffled range, almost approaching a 100 percent safe range."

He said the group's primary issue was always safety.

"They had not one single baffle" in place when the lawsuit began, Richman said.

"We've got a really nice range now," Corsi said.

He said it's now both safer and quieter.

"It's a real asset," Corsi said.