Gunfire unnerves Mahoning River-front hikers
YOUNGSTOWN
Participants in a June Eagle Scout project and a December hike along the Mahoning River heard the staccato sound of gunfire. They couldn’t immediately identify the source, but they later learned it came from a nearby law-enforcement firing range.
“We heard what we thought at first was fireworks. Some of our adult leaders realized that was not fireworks,” said Byron Harnishfeger, scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 60 based at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Boardman.
Harnishfeger was part of a group rebuilding a dock on the south side of the river at West Avenue, which was Daniel Raver’s Eagle Scout project, during the annual Riverfest event at the B&O Station Banquet Hall.
A Scout parent, Fred DeLuca, who is a former Mahoning County deputy sheriff, called Sheriff Jerry Greene to inquire about the gunfire, and the group learned it originated from the Fraternal Order of Police firing range on West Avenue on the north side of the river, which is used by deputies and local police for firearms training and qualification.
The issue resurfaced when Mark Ingram of Boardman e-mailed Robin Lees, city police chief, to report that he heard gunfire while hiking with a brother from out of town and his wife Dec. 26 on a riverfront trail from the B&O to West Avenue.
“We all found the gunfire unnerving,” Ingram told the police chief.
“A bunch of different groups, including the city, have been working to make the riverfront more accessible and an asset to the city. This recurring gunfire from the north side of the river works to undermine these efforts and objectives,” complained Ingram.
“Anything that can be done to eliminate this recurring gunfire would serve to promote the image and welfare of the city,” he added.
Lees informed Ingram about the outdoor firing range and said its location is convenient for deputies and city police.
The range is near the county jail, where most deputies are based, and the city police station, both in downtown Youngstown.
Signs could be posted along the riverfront informing the public that the gunfire is from a lawfully operated range and not “the result of lawless or criminal activity,” the chief said.
City Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st, said he also believes signs should be posted along the river informing hikers, kayakers and canoeists about the law-enforcement shooting range “so they won’t be so alarmed” by the gunfire.
“I think it’s a necessary thing to have,” Oliver said of the West Avenue firing range. “I’m sure it’s something that the sheriff’s department and the task force and other police departments need in the city.”
The sheriff and Deputy Joe Iberis, president of FOP Lodge 141, which represents sheriff’s deputies, said they plan to erect such signs along the river this spring.
“That would be advantageous just to inform people that there is a safe range in the vicinity and that they’re not in danger,” Harnishfeger said.
On Dec. 26, a deputy who had just returned from a leave of absence likely was performing firearms qualification before a year-end deadline, Iberis said.
Don Rex of Girard, a member of the Friend of the Mahoning River’s board of directors, said he wants the Friends to discuss the gunfire at its next meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Oakhill Collaborative, 507 Oak Hill Ave.
Friends of the Mahoning River is an advocacy group for the cleanliness and recreational use of the river.
“That doesn’t seem like a great place for a firing range this close to downtown,” Rex said.
“It scares the heck out of people. People are going to think there’s a shooting or a gang fight,” added Rex, a former Girard councilman.
“If they don’t know why they’re hearing gunshots, they’re going to be naturally alarmed,” said Rex, also a retired Girard schools teacher and administrator.
If the sheriff’s department is notified in advance of scheduled nearby events, such as Riverfest, range activity could be suspended during the event, Iberis said.
“The FOP and I would hate to see an asset like this [firing range] get shut down,” because it “is beneficial to so many” local and state law-enforcement officers, Greene said.
The closeness of the range to the county jail saves the sheriff’s office considerable overtime expenses in getting the deputies firing-range access, Greene said.
The locked, fenced-in firing range, located in an industrial area off West Avenue about 100 yards from the river, opened in 2013.
Its creation was facilitated by Bruce Zoldan, B.J. Alan Fireworks Co. president, who leases the land to the deputies for $1 a year; by Youngstown State University, which donated soil excavated from its athletic complex west of Fifth Avenue; and by Ohio Edison, which donated and anchored the utility poles that hold the targets.
The excavated earth forms the 18-foot high, U-shaped embankment that absorbs bullet slugs behind the targets.
The city exempted the range from its ban on discharging firearms within city limits.
The sheriff said a city police officer checked the area near the range with a decibel meter and found the sound intensity of the gunfire was within acceptable limits. The high backstop mound significantly reduces the noise level, the sheriff said.
Before the West Avenue range opened, deputies had to schedule their firing time and travel to an Austintown range that was crowded with law-enforcement personnel from other agencies. The Austintown range, which was alongside a hiking and bicycle trail, closed in 2013.
“We operated a firearms range of our own within the city out on Thorn Hill [Road] for a number of years. Because of the reclamation of the area by the property owner, we were forced out of there, and we’ve kind of been nomads ever since, leasing space at different places. And we have used the sheriff’s range ourselves because it is very convenient,” Lees said.
City police plan to establish “in the next year or so” a firing range on 18 state-donated acres adjacent to the Ohio State Penitentiary on the city’s East Side, perhaps funded by traffic speed-camera enforcement fines, he said.
The backstop mound there would come from earth excavated for construction of the prison during the 1990s, he added.
Lees said he believes the West Avenue range is safe.
“There’s an adequate backstop” for bullet slugs, the chief said of the earthen mound at the West Avenue range, which he has used for his annual firearms qualification.
The sheriff said he is “100 percent” confident in the range’s safety.
“The FOP has a $2 million [liability] insurance policy on that range,” the sheriff added.
Because of concerns expressed by city council members when the range opened, the West Avenue range is used for pistol and shotgun shooting; but rifles, which have a higher velocity and longer range, are fired at an Ellsworth range, the sheriff said.