Tuesday, October 21, 2003
For 62 years, the Lawrence County Sportsmans Association offered several generations a place where they could pursue whatever outdoors sports intrigued them.
As of Jan. 1, 2004, the 106-acre site on Harbor Road just east of New Castle will be closed to those pursuits.
However, the club's leadership is scouring the county for a place to transplant the club and offer its 400 members a new and improved facility.
Lenny Simon, club president, said Lawrence County economic development officials told the club earlier this year that the property was needed for the Millennium Park, a high-tech industrial park project that would bring jobs to the area.
Not against jobs
Not wanting to impede progress, Simon said the club decided against a fight to remain in place.
Simon said the club checked with a lawyer and realized that if it didn't sell the property it would likely be taken by eminent domain anyway.
"We really had no recourse," he said.
"We decided we'd deal with [the county], and we didn't want to be against jobs," he said. "Besides, the money they offered us was fair and equitable to the club."
Simon said the search for a new site for the club is continuing with several parcels around Lawrence County currently under consideration.
He said the Jan. 1 deadline won't affect the club's activities.
"For some things like our annual Ironman competition, we just didn't schedule one this fall," Simon said. The Ironman competition, in recent years an annual event, attracts shooting sports enthusiasts from a wide area for a day of multidisciplinary shooting events such as trap, skeet, sporting clays and 5-stand.
Simon added that selecting a new club site won't be rushed, though a new property would be nice to have by Jan. 1.
Bought for $400
The current site was bought in 1941 at a sheriff's sale for $400 in unpaid taxes, Simon said. The facility, just off U.S. Route 422, is "not an extreme amount of land, but it was perfect," he said.
"There are lots of variables with a shooting club," he said. "We were grandfathered in at our current site but that won't be so at a new site."
Simon said one aspect of the current club site that makes activities there relatively nonproblematic was that there are few neighbors to deal with, as the grounds are bordered by a river and a road.
Selection of a new site will have to be mitigated by the neighbors and where activities such as shooting and related events can be arranged, Simon explained.
The new site selected will be far better for the club and for future activities, Simon said. "We will have all the same things we have now, but they will be all new."
New and improved
He added that some of the positions for specific shooting sports activities will likely be reconfigured to provide a new experience for club members. Additionally, the move will enable the club to build a new and improved clubhouse as well as make any other needed changes.
"We're not happy with what happened, but what's done is done and we're not going to fight it," Simon said of the forced move. "You sometimes just have to accept things and move on."
braun@vindy.com