New berm planned for police gun range in Hobart

The city of Hobart plans to build another berm between the police department’s gun range and the Strack’s shopping plaza on 37th Avenue to reduce some of the noise coming from the range.

While the range has been active for about four years, city officials said they’ve only recently begun receiving complaints about noise.

Robert Fulton, assistant to Mayor Brian Snedecor, told the Plan Commission on Thursday that police officers have been doing more training with long rifles, which could be louder than other firearms.

“They use more robust bullets,” Fulton said.

Plan Commission member John Spain said he lives in that area and never no- ticed the shooting range until recently.

“You may want to relook at the time they’re shooting,” Spain said. “It was definitely noticeable,” he added of a recent incident.

City planner Sergio Mendoza said there were set times and days that the shooting range could be used when it was approved by the commission.

City engineer Phil Gralik said there is a 23-foot berm on site with trees planted all along it now. He said the new berm will be similar.

In other matters, the commission agreed to hold a public hearing to determine if residents in the Trailview subdivision and at the end of 10th Street near Wisconsin Street would prefer the city spend $50,000 to make a connection to the Oak-Savanna Bike Trail or on improvements in the subdivi- sion.

Mendoza said the developer of the Trailview subdivision, which consists of 11 houses on a dead-end street, gave the city a $50,000 cashier’s check in 2005 to pay for the connection. Mendoza said the money has been held in a safe since then.

But Gralik said there are other needs in the subdivision, including streets and streetlights.

“Are we better off using the money for needs other than the trail connection? However, if people bought their homes because of the trail connection, we may need to move forward on that,” Gralik said.

Gralik said if the money is used for the trail, the other expenses could fall on the city.

Councilman Dave Vinzant, D-4th, said he’d like to include those living near 10th and Wisconsin in the hearing as well.

“Having the connection would be valuable to them too,” Vinzant said. Karen Caffarini is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.