Businesses to Fight Reopening of Prison Firing Range

 THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY

Drop in a question of your very own BY CLICKING HERE or by emailing 25-year Vermilion County reporter Jennifer Bailey at jbailey@news-gazette.com.

DANVILLE — About 20 people attended an informational meeting Vermilion Advantage conducted at Saltgrass Steak House at the Golden Nugget Danville Casino on Wednesday morning regarding business concerns about the reopening of a firing range at the Danville Correctional Center.

While it appears the Illinois Department of Corrections wants to save money and assist with staffing by not sending its employees to the Robinson Correctional Center about two hours away for regular gun requalification, practice and training, nearby business owners say they’re concerned too about losing money from hotel, cannabis and other customers, lower property values, and about the noise and safety.

Vermilion Advantage was recently informed by some of its members of a Feb. 6 letter from the Illinois Attorney General’s office stating the Illinois Department of Corrections filed a motion to overturn an almost-40-year injunction and restore use of the firing range at the Danville prison.

Bruce Parr, whose family owned the former Redwood Inn and he still owns property with his brother to the south of the prison, said he and his family are listed on the legal document for the court case that shut down the firing range at the prison in 1986. He said he was told there’s still a foot or so of the berm for the firing range that’s on their property.

Parr said they didn’t know there was going to be a firing range back in the late 1980s. It started and they shot at all hours of the day, with lights flashing, he said.

“I had motel rooms that were 600 feet from flashing lights and bullets going off in the middle of the night,” Parr said.

He said he found out later that some prison employees up in the tower were shooting at rabbits on his family’s property.

Parr estimates in the first month after the firing range started, they lost about 60 percent of their motel business.

Parr said they contacted the prison warden, but ended up having to take it to court. The Parrs ended up suing for only up to $100,000, due to state restrictions, even though their losses were substantially more than that, Parr said. When they actually sold the property, he estimates the actual loss of value in losing most of their customers was more than $1 million.

Judge Rita Garman put the firing range injunction in place.

“If they fire it up again, the houses over on Rileysburg Road are going to be in danger again,” Parr said.

An Indiana resident in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting also said the firing range shoots straight at his house, and a bullet about 40 years ago had gone through a neighbor’s window.

“You guys are talking about things that are iffy, and well this could happen, this might happen. I know what did happen,” Parr said about personally experiencing it already.

He said the Sleep Inn will lose about a third of its business and maybe 20-30 percent of its hotel value.

Others present at the meeting included representatives with Sunnyside and Seven Point cannabis dispensaries, hotels, Autozone, Steel Grip, Moon Glo, Golden Nugget Casino and Danville City Council Ward 4 Alderwoman and Vice Mayor Tricia Teague.

Ryan Bell, Local 2052 president with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employee union that represents employee members at the prison, said the range has been closed down a while, but the berm they have, a big dirt hill they shoot into and what catches their rounds, is the tallest in all of corrections.

“Down at Robinson, the berm is probably half the size that we shoot into,” Bell said.

“The range faces toward the east,” he added. “So, we’re not going to be shooting towards any businesses, nothing like that.”

Bell said they have to travel to Robinson Correctional Center, and sometimes they will have five to 10 officers, sergeants and lieutenants who have to requalify with their weapons and they’re sending that many staff two hours away, shorting the staff at the Danville prison and in case of any emergencies.

“We already have a staffing shortage to begin with,” he said. “Having this range open here would help keep staff at the facility.”

Bell added that, “nobody can guarantee anything 100 percent safe. As a union representative one of our biggest objectives is safety.”

P.B. Patel with Sunrise Hospitality which oversees TownePlace Suites by Marriott, Holiday Inn Express and Hampton Inn, said guests won’t want to stay at night.

He and the other hotel and cannabis dispensary representatives said they are worried about the noise, such as for veterans and other customers hearing the gun shots, day sleepers at the nearby hotels including for railroad workers, and also for the basketball players with the National Junior College Athletic Association tournament that Danville Area Community College hosts annually.

Bell, who has worked at the prison for 13 years, responded that they won’t be shooting at night. There’s no night shoots like there used to be.

“When we qualify with our weapons, we have range day every five days,” Bell said. “So, we wouldn’t be out there every day shooting.”

Also, when for requalification, it’s just for a few hours, he said. “We burn through it really quick,” Bell said.

Bell said the union doesn’t want to see the businesses suffer, which the employees and families also frequent.

“With the noise, we no longer qualify with a shotgun anymore. So, you’re talking about handguns and a rifle,” Bell added.

The Danville range doesn’t have structures the employees shoot underneath to help absorb the sound like Robinson does about every 20-30 yards at its range to help reduce the noise, he too said.

Bell said he doesn’t know if that could be installed at the Danville prison.

He also couldn’t answer if other IDOC employees would then come to the Danville prison too to requalify. It’s not unheard of, Bell said, and that’s a good possibility.

Also, he thought if the Danville range was re-opened, local and county police officers could use it too, with state permission.

Steps Vermilion Advantage plans to take include sending a letter to Attorney General Kwame Raoul to reconsider the decision. He said even though the firing range was shut down, the IDOC has been able to operate the prison at a high level since. Vermilion Advantage also continues data gathering, looking to present business facts of what they could lose with the range reopening. Vermilion Advantage also wants a sit-down meeting with the IDOC and Raoul.

This again could be decided in a courtroom. A next court date for a case management conference is April 4.