Minutes TRC BOD Meeting Feb 18, 2004

NEW BUSINESS:

· Border Patrol wishes to ‘camp’ at our facility from mid-February thru September. We have responded in the affirmative with conditions, namely they either pay a flat monthly fee or help with upgrade or maintenance of the facilities that they will utilize during their stay. Waiting their ‘official’ reply.

· Santa Cruz Valley Friends of the NRA – March 6th at Desert Diamond would like support or participation from TRC. Suggest we buy a 10 seat table and have ‘volunteers’ attend the activity. Cost is $35/seat x 10 = $350. Motion to fund the table; made and passed.
(Attendees: Luiten; Warren; Novak; Duchene; Bertrand.)

· Steel - Armor Plate: Louis Fox of the SAWC has a remnant of AR500 steel plate for sale to the Cowboy Action folks. ½” x 3’ x 4’ for $175. Dave Glenn wants to buy with CAS fees, but Will suggests we just buy it with club funds and give to Action to fabricate targets to meet their needs. Motion – Passed. [$14.58/sq-ft is a good price.]

· .50 BMG usages on range. The muzzle report of these (rifles) is extreme and to avoid discomfort to adjacent shooters it is suggested we move operation of these particular firearms to the western edge of the range. A fellow (Mr. Lazzerini?) of the Fifty Caliber Shooting Association (FCSA) wished to contribute a large sum of money to upgrade our 1000 yard range to accommodate those cartridges. He hasn’t followed up with his initial overture. Problem: BAR (operated by G&F) prohibits them from that range as the potential of projectiles leaving the confines of the range (after impacting a berm) is high.
We may need to get G&F approval or sanction in order allows the use of .50 BMG on the Three Points Range. Will to contact Don Turner and get a weather report. i.e. whether or not we can accommodate the .50 BMG cartridges.

· IAW May Warren – urge everyone to get on line and vote “Point of Pride” for Ben Avery range.

CAST YOUR VOTE FOR BEN AVERY by clicking on the below link:

http://www.azcentral.com/community/pride/vote.html

By casting your vote, it would be more difficult to close Ben Avery.

OLD BUSINESS:

· Range Improvement Project: (Overhead projector review of the range improvements – broken down into segments according to contractor bid IAW individual ranges)
1. Action Range – Grading; Safety walls; build up berms, etc. Cost - $12K Contractor will build the power/signal pole safety walls for an approximate price of $4K or about $1K per installation.
2. Pistol Silhouette – Build up Turkey bunker wall; rework wash drive through. Cost - $2K. Perhaps we can do this with the range tractor and save the $2K.
3. DPS – Raise (side berm from pole to end of backstop) berm to 20’ Cost - $8K Problem: his portion of the range is sub-leased to DPS from G&F and we are not in a position to alter the facilities. On the other hand it is in its present state in serious safety conflict with the adjacent Pistol Silhouette range when setting the Ram & Turkey silhouette targets. As in the past we can fix the ‘problem’ with PROCEDURES. We CLOSE this range except for activities that are supervised and controlled. i.e. CCW and other training exercises. Contact G&F (either Kerry Baldwin or Don Turner) with our concern for safety and have them initiate contact and request for response from DPS that the either address the issue or allow G&F to rectify the situation. The root issue is target setter safety and/or the problem of inter-range isolation safety.
4. Black Powder – Grade flat and raise berms to 20’ (min) Cost - $40K. This bid excludes the cost of re-locating the firing lines and adding/extending the Ramada coverage of the firing lines. (This portion of the bid is so costly it is out of bounds given that we have perhaps 30K to budget for the combination of these exercises.)
5. High Power Rifle Silhouette – Build up target setter bunkers; cut access path on Ram target line; place waste dirt on E side of range to act as side berm (safety) barrier. Cost - $3.6K
In addition to the base estimate for machine and operator time there is an estimated cost for permits (Pima Co. Air Quality) and government fees that may exceed $1,5K.

(The aforementioned improvements are part of a TRC proposal submission to G&F. )

Review of the two “Hot-Spots” with respect to range safety.
· DPS conflict with adjacent Pistol Silhouette Range (Turkey & Ram target lines).
· Public Range in conflict with the adjacent High Power Rifle Silhouette range (Ram target line.).
DPS problem is that we (TRC) have no authority over this subleased area (5 acres).

Suggest that we refine the earth work with the contractor and concentrate on the two areas that need to be addressed: Action Range(s) and the High Power Rifle Silhouette range. Will_S to contact TVEC manager (Cecil) and review the specifics of a refined and more detailed proposal for earth work on these two specific ranges.
Grade and modify berms on Action range; and fix bunkers and start the side berm on the east edge of the range.

· Certificate of appreciation from Charlie Sams (Scoutmaster) given to TRC and accepted by Will Schmall, President.

Motion to Adjourn – 8:05PM