Local Video
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| Sportsmen close in on archery range |
By: Jeff Wald, Sports Editor
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Posted: Friday, March 19, 2010 10:19 pm
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The Cannon River Sportsmen’s Club is hoping to use land owned by the city of Northfield outside city limits for anchery range. The land is just south of the water tower by Spring Creek Park.
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NORTHFIELD — The process took more than two years, but Blair Fowler and the Cannon River Sportsmen’s Club finally might have found a place for an archery range.
Fowler and the CRSC will attend a public hearing with the Rice County Board of Commissioners in the first week of April to apply for a conditional use permit for land just south of the Northfield city water tower. After that, the CRSC needs approval from the Northfield Park Board and the Northfield Planning Commission at a meeting scheduled for April 13. The club should get the eventual go-ahead from the Northfield City Council when it meets in early May.
The property for the range is owned by the city of Northfield, but is outside city limits.
Fowler said he hopes to be done “jumping through the hoops” by early May, and construction the facility would begin in June. The CRSC has archery classes planned for the summer through Northfield Community Education and Recreation.
“If the public hearing goes well and the Planning Commission passes it, then the County Commissioners will accept the conditional use permit,” Fowler said. “The county has been real positive about it. We’ve met with them all several times.”
Northfield City Administrator Joel Walinski recommended the site to Fowler and the CRSC last spring. Fowler has been working with the city for the last several months on an agreeable place for the range. the CRSC tried previously to get permission for an archery range in several other spots in Northfield. Among them were Lashbrook Park, Compostella Park, Spring Creek Park, Sechler Park and through a couple of other private parties.
“It’s a good project, and it’s taken us nearly two years,” Walinski said. “It’s a nice site in that it’s fairly flat and it’s open field. I think it will work. They’ve worked through a lot of things to get there.”
The site for the range is approximately one acre, and there will be seven targets ranging from 10 to 70 yards. People who wish to use the range will shoot directly to the east, which eliminates danger to the general public for 4,400 feet. The club plans to build fencing to south for protection, and a berm about 100 feet east will prevent wayward arrows from hurting people.
“It’s the perfect site for us. We’re shooting to the east, it’s open area and there is almost a mile of open land beyond the targets,” Fowler said. “It’s so much nicer than anything we’ve tried.”
The area of land south of the water tower is about four acres, according to Northfield Public Works Operations Engineer Brian Erickson. About half that land is farmland, he said.
“Blair has a passion for teaching and giving opportunities to sportsmen. His effort in all of this says a lot about the project,” Erickson said. “He’s done everything to get this range short of wrapping it in a bow with a box of cupcakes for the city.”
Erickson said in just looking at the land, the archery range could definitely be accommodated.
Fowler said the facility, once constructed, would be open to the public and wouldn’t require a CRSC membership. The club, which has existed for 23 years, will maintain the land as long as the club is in operation. He said there are also people in Faribault and Lonsdale looking for an available archery range.
“It’s just something we wanted to get built for the city, for the park system and for recreation. There’s a lot of guys who want to shoot with a bow and arrow around here,” Fowler said. “We just want to get this one up and running.”
The CRSC is also looking into using Northfield Ice Arena in the off-season for fall leagues and clinics, and also in the spring.
Fowler said the current site by the water tower is the most promising the club has found in the two-year process.
“We’re hoping to by May 1 to be building backdrops,” Fowler said. “We have to sit down with Brian (Erickson) and Joel (Walinski) and finish out the agreement, but we’ve put a lot of work into it.”
— Jeff Wald covers local sports. He can be reached at 645-1111 or jwald@northfieldnews.com. |
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