After years of struggling with the sound of gunfire, Beaver Hill neighbors like Seth Poole (pictured) are finding hope in a new plan to move the police academy and its firing range out of earshot.
The city set its sights on a new home for its police academy and firing range at 710 Sherman Ave. The proposed new home is the soon-to-close Army Reserve base on Wintergreen Avenue.
Peaches Quinn relayed the news to a meeting of the Whalley-Edgewood-Beaver Hill (WEB) Management Team this week. She hoped the move would bring relief to a neighborhood that has been dealing with noise from the outdoor shooting range for years.
Community members around Crescent Street have been actively looking for a solution for five years, said Quinn.
Difficulties arise because any decision made must satisfy community members and representatives from both the city and the police department. Whenever there are personnel changes at City Hall or 1 Union Ave., the decision process goes back to the beginning.
“We’ve had a terrible time trying to find a solution,” Quinn (pictured) said. “The engagement with this process has been a roller coaster ride. But right now we are on a peak.”
This peak, Quinn said, is in large thanks to Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts, Police Chief James Lewis, and members of the academy staff.
Base Put Out To Bid
Reached after the meeting, Smuts elaborated on the city’s plans for the Army Reserve base. The site was among wave of bases that the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) ordered to be shut down in 2005. It still in use by the Army Reserve, which is transitioning off of the site.
The city thinks the site would be a “perfect” new home for its police academy and firing range, Smuts said. The property is so big that the academy would probably share the space with other entities, such as domestic violence services, he said.
Having set its sights on the property, the city has to jump through a few hoops before it can occupy the space.
“A base closing is a big, complicated process,” Smuts said. BRAC set up protocols by which the property must change hands. They called for setting up a local development authority to carry out the bidding process. The authority has been established, said Smuts. It has a half-dozen members, including Beaver Hill Alderman Carl Goldfield and a few city officials.
The authority plans to place a newspaper notice over the next couple weeks announcing that the property is available. The site will be advertised for about 145 days, said Smuts. In January, bidders will be able to tour the site. The city intends to put in a bid for the land, he said. If the city gets chosen to take over the site, it would still need approval from two to three federal agencies, Smuts said.
Peace And Quiet
While those bureaucratic Olympics are taking place, the city is also separately seeking funding to address the noise issue at the firing range, said Smuts. The range is currently used by FBI and Secret Service agents, members of the U.S. Coast Guard as well as city cops. The city is looking for about $6 million in grant money to build an indoor firing range.
“That would take care of a lot of the problems” for neighbors, he said.
If the city secures the Wintergreen base for its academy, the firing range would likely be moved there, too.
If a deal is struck, it would be great news for neighbors like Seth Poole (in photo at the top of this story). Poole, 32, is a New Haven native. He grew up spending time at his grandmother’s house behind the shooting range. It wasn’t until he left New Haven for college that he realized the noise of constant gunfire wasn’t normal. Now, as the alumni advisor at Amistad Academy, he worries about the effect of school children who go to class within earshot of the firing range.
If the police academy move is approved, the old academy buildings would hopefully be given back to the community, Quinn said.
“We would want to relegate the property to an environmental protection structure,” said Quinn.
In the meantime, WEB’s Firing Range Committee is looking for ways to reduce the noise, but that also costs money, she said. Additionally, the police department has approved requests to release a noise indicator schedule, so neighbors will know in advance how loud the gunfire on any specific day will be.