Markeshia Ricks Photo
Caplan eager to break ground.
Francine Caplan was all too happy to be standing Thursday in a back lot tucked behind Southern Connecticut State University, with a shovel in her hand. The day was more than 20 years in the making.
Caplan is one of the neighbors who live near the city police department’s outdoor firing range at the police academy at 710 Sherman Parkway, and spent years listening to gun shots.
By next spring or summer, depending on the weather, she, along with those who live in Newhallville, could be listening to the blissful sound of silence instead.
She joined Mayor Toni Harp joined Interim Police Chief Anthony Campbell and Assistant Chief Luis Casanova, who heads the police academy, along with other city officials Thursday afternoon to break ground on what will be the police department’s new training facility and indoor firing range. The new firing range is the former George D. Libby Reserve Center at 170 Wintergreen Ave.; it used to be a U.S. Army Reserve center. The city struck a deal with the feds back in 2011 to acquire the property, but the funding to cover its construction cost just came through from the state last year.
It wasn’t lost on Caplan that many years ago a decision to put an outdoor firing range in her neighborhood was made; and neighbors had to work many years to make a new decision that would not only be good for neighbors many years from now, but also for the police department.
“One decision can have impact for so many years,” said Caplan, who served as the chairwoman of the committee that was formed to guide the move of the firing range. “All this is so I don’t have to do this again!”
Interim Police Chief Campbell addresses the crowd.
Quinnipiac Meadows Alder Gerald Antunes, who serves as chairman of the Board of Alders Public Safety Committee, gave a history lesson about the old firing range, which he said was built in 1953. Antunes, a retired New Haven police officer, said he’s shot at the old range and knows its smells.
“I’m looking forward to giving this new place a shot,” he said. “No pun intended.”
Casanova said that the new firing range was the culmination of the community being persistent about wanting to move the police department’s firing range. But also the community and city officials listening to the needs of the police department and taking action.
“The police department will no longer be responsible for terrorizing this community,” he said. “The community spoke and we listened.”
City Engineer Zinn explains the design of the new range.
City Engineer Giovanni Zinn called the project an exciting one for the city. It addresses a problem impacting resident’s quality of life, he said. And the the city is addressing that problem with a lot of its own resources and talents. The city is covering $1 million of the $1.3 million price tag for the project with a state bonding grant, and the rest with capital fund money. From design to construction, much of the work is being done in-house through a collaboration between Zinn’s department and the Department of Public Works, which allows the city to expand its talent pool and the types of projects it is capable of doing.
“We’re saving the city and residents a significant amount of money,” he said.
He said the building will have ballistic rubber, and multiple layers of other materials to deaden the sound of gun fire including rockwool insulation. “We wanted to make sure that sound doesn’t escape,” he said. As for smelling the fumes inside the building and dealing with the discarded lead, Zinn said a rubber trap will collect the bullets and can be replaced as needed. He said the building will have a ventilation system with hepa filters that will actually keep the air inside cleaner than what people normally breathe.
In addition to having a new facility for New Haven police officers to train, Casanova said, the department will be able to rent it to other police departments — and generate an income for the city.
The mayor with DPW’s Lynwood Dorsey.
Mayor Harp said in her remarks that the new facility “represents the prolonged, steadfast commitment of neighbors and many city departments, as well as the state and federal governments.
“This new facility represents respect and cooperation among all these groups,” she said.
Caplan said once the police firing range makes its move into its new digs on Wintergreen Avenue, another committee of neighbors and officials will have to work together on the plan for the environmental remediation of the old site so that it can be restored to park land. In addition to the new firing range being good for pets and wild animals alike, the closing of the old firing range will be good for home owners’ property value in the area. She also said it’s good for the police department.
“It was never our intent to push the department out because they need a place to train, or to push them into another neighborhood,” she said. “We always felt that the outdoor firing range was the problem. This is a win-win for everybody.”