Dry lake bed site chosen for public shooting range

Jeffrey Libby

Monday, March 12, 2001 | 11:42 a.m.

Eldorado Valley is emerging as the likely site for a regional public safety shooting range.

Officials throughout the Las Vegas Valley say use of the dry lake bed six miles southwest of downtown Boulder City would provide a long-term training site secure from encroaching residential neighborhoods.

The planned shooting range would eventually open for public use, as well.

Boulder City, which owns the majority of the land under discussion, will consider Tuesday seeking bids to develop a roughly 60-acre facility buffered by several square miles of mostly undeveloped desert.

Twenty-year plans would expand the range to a scope comparable with a 3,000-acre public shooting park planned for an undeveloped area northwest of Las Vegas in the foothills of the Sheep Mountains.

Plans for the Eldorado Valley shooting range remain preliminary, however. Boulder City officials Wednesday could not give specific plans detailing the expected cost of the facility, how it would be paid for, or when they hoped to begin construction.

Even so, the city has valleywide support, both public and private, for the project.

The Henderson Police Department has offered to provide financial backing for the shooting range, Police Chief Michael Mayberry said. The Metro and North Las Vegas police department also have expressed an interest.

Silver State Materials, which owns Construx Excavators, a gravel and sand pit nearby the proposed range, has offered $1.5 million to build the first phase of the shooting facility.

And if the shooting range is successfully established for public safety officials, Clark County could provide financial support to open the range for public uses, said Glenn Trowbridge, Clark County Parks and Recreation director.

Officials say the need for new shooting facilities in the Las Vegas Valley is overwhelming.

"Policing in Clark County is a growth industry," Phillip Henry, director of Boulder City Public Works Department, said. "With the ever-increasing requirement for police training, there's a need for good training facilities."

Part of that need is driven by the growth of residential neighborhoods, Henry said.

About 18 months ago, Henderson Police closed its shooting range to make way for a new bird preserve and for the neighborhoods that have grown up around the facility.

"Since that time, we've been literally scrambling to find places to shoot," Mayberry said.

North Las Vegas and Las Vegas Metro Police have also had difficulty finding places to build new shooting ranges that have a sufficient buffer from homes.

Mayberry has been training his 212 sworn officers at a National Parks Service range. They train six times a year over a three-day period.

Mayberry is also looking forward to the vehicle training track planned for Eldorado Valley. He currently trains officers in high-speed driving at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Steve Hill, president of Las Vegas-based Silver State Materials, a gravel mining company, sees the proposed facility as a way to help provide for cleanup of a gravel mine at the proposed range site.

His proposed investment would serve as reclamation money up front, he said.

The mining operation and shooting range could operate at the same time, according to preliminary plans. But part of the advantage of building the range at the site of the gravel mine would be using a hole left by mining digs to avoid excavation costs.

At least at first, the shooting range will not be planned on the large scale the city had previously hoped.

As recently as a month ago the Eldorado Valley site was one of three contenders for a regional public safety shooting range and park planned by Clark County.

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