The state police are seeking to relocate their firearms training center due to a constant threat of flooding. They’ve chosen Glastonbury to build a brand new $6 million facility.
The site for the proposed shooting range borders an existing public shooting range which opened 33 years ago. But that range is only used on weekends, and the state police facility would be used Monday through Friday, upsetting some neighbors in the area.
The current range, on Nod Road in Simsbury, which borders the Farmington River, has experienced at least 30 major floods since the 1950s, ruining buildings and equipment.
“What we’ve experienced with the range, the damage to the range and the lack of availability is we’ve had difficulty in scheduling training for the men and women of the department,” said state police Lt. J. Paul Vance.
A public meeting will be held on the proposal on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the town’s Riverfront Community Center. But the town doesn’t have much of a say in the matter because the state already owns the land on the proposed 30 acre site, which sits just east of Route 2 near the Glastonbury-Marlborough line in the Meshomasic Forest.
Town Manager Richard Johnson said he’s heard various concerns from residents, including noise, traffic, hours of operation and how the native species living in the state forest will be handled when the new facility is built.