COTTER — A proposed amendment that would allow the Cotter Public School’s trapshooting teams to practice on campus needs more work, the Cotter City Council told Superintendent Vanessa Thomas Jones on Thursday night.
Thomas Jones had presented the Council with a proposed revision to city ordinance 162-72, which restricts the discharge of firearms inside the city limits to law enforcement officials in the line of duty. The proposed amendment would have exempted “students and staff for the purpose of participating in the shooting sports program at the Cotter Public Schools trap field.”
Cotter has about 30 students who participate in trapshooting, and the school is considering building a trap field on school campus. Presently, the trap teams must travel to ranges in Midway or Yellville to practice.
Thomas Jones withdrew the amendment after the Council expressed reservations over some of the language in the revision.
“There’s nothing here about school property,” council member Roland Morris said. “There’s nothing on here that says anything about shooting on school property only. I think that needs to be addressed.”
City attorney Roger Morgan added that specific days and times students would be allowed to shoot should probably be included in the amendment.
“As your legal counsel, I’m really not comfortable with [the proposed amendment],” Morgan told the Council. “I think it is very broad. I don’t think it’s limited to location, I don’t think it’s limited in times. If you pass this, it has none of those limitations on there.”
In a Dec. 22 email from Thomas Jones to Mayor Peggy Hammack, the superintendent writes that the school district was “requesting an amendment … for the purpose of a trap field for shooting sports on our campus. On weekdays Monday through Friday the hours being requested are 4 p.m.-6 p.m. On Saturdays the requested time frame is between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.”
The Cotter superintendent said she would revise the proposed ordinance with specific locations and times and bring it back next month. The Council’s next scheduled meeting is Jan. 25 at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
Amendments are usually read at three separate meetings before the City Council votes on them. The Council does have the option of suspending its rules and reading an ordinance or amendment three times at the same meeting.
The school district first approached the City Council in October with a plan to build a trap range on 40 acres of land on the south end of campus. The city held a public meeting on the issue in November, and council members told the school district to present a proposed amendment to the city’s firearm ordinance if it wished to proceed.
More than 45 people attended Thursday night’s meeting. Counting the superintendent, a dozen community members were recognized to speak about the proposed trap range. At least three members of the schools’ shooting teams sat in the audience.
Mac Caradine, vice-chair of the Cotter Planning and Zoning Commission, read a letter from the commission to the City Council that recommended that the city not amend its firearms ordinance. A trap range would have a negative impact on residents’ property values, the repetitive shotgun fire would create a noise nuisance and the expended lead shot could contaminate ground water and the White River, he said.
Caradine carried a copy of “25 Best Towns to Fly Fish for Trout” by Bob Mallard with him to the podium for his remarks. Mallard’s book praises Cotter for its trophy trout waters and quiet, laid-back appeal.
“If this gun range goes in, books like this will not be written in the future,” Caradine said. “The word of mouth, people are not going to come to this town and listen to loud noises on the river.”