At the time of this writing we have just been informed by the Indiana DNR that we have been awarded $1.2 million dollars from the Pittman-Robertson Act (PR) for range improvements. We are busy working with our Engineering and Architectural firms on the plans and drawings.
We had planned to hold an informational membership presentation at the June 2020 shoot and then again at the September 2020 shoot, but unfortunately those did not happen. We will plan to hold one at the June 2021 shoot.
The PR grant is a 90/10 grant that is provided by Federal Funds, managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, with the money passed down to the states for local management. In the State of Indiana, it is the Indiana Department of Natural Resources
(INDNR). The 90/10 grant means that the PR Grant Program provides 90% of the funding and the NMLRA will only have to match 10%.
I’d like to share a little background on how we got
to where we are today. At the June 2019 Board of Directors meeting, President Joe Hill appointed
me as Chairman of what we are calling the Range Improvement Committee, to work toward securing funding from the Pittman-Robertson Grant Program. I selected the following board members to participate on this committee: Rick Weber, Marty Murphy, Joe Hill, Andy Larson and Jeff Cunningham. These board members were selected because each one has a track record of being willing to roll up their sleeves and work for the betterment of the NMLRA.
Back in 2019 when we first met with the INDNR, the State was looking to fund a project of around
$225,000 for range improvements. While that is a large sum of money, it would not go very far with the projects we had in mind. At the January 2020 meeting in Indianapolis, we pushed the government officials with the US Fish and Wildlife and INDNR for more funding. As the direct result of that meeting, we were ultimately bumped up to $1.2 million dollars.
Until we receive actual bids from contractors, we simply do not know how much the project will cost. The range improvement project that we envision will result in long term benefits
for the NMLRA, and making ranges more ADA compliant, is very important to us. With our aging population, we need to be sure that our members can access our ranges and facilities. This also includes upgrading and improving the drainage across the rifle, pistol and trap ranges.
As part of the plan, we are including two new ADA compliant bathrooms. These new bathrooms will each have 8 individual private rooms with a shower, toilet and sink. The bathrooms will also have an open room with 3 urinals and a sink. These new bathrooms will replace the ones by the trap/pistol range and rifle range. The new bathrooms will be built near the existing bathrooms and the existing bathrooms will remain open and functional until the new bathrooms are completed.
I don’t have enough room in this message to outline everything that we are hoping and planning to do, but in addition to the new bathrooms, we are planning a total makeover of the trap range, improvements to the pistol range and several improvements to the woods walk.
One of the criteria to receive the PR funding is that we allow at least 10 hours per month on average of public access to our ranges. We currently meet that criteria with various shooting matches we now host.
In the future we plan to publish more information in Muzzle Blasts and will plan to hold an informational meeting for the membership at the June 2021 match.
-Art Fleener, Secretary