Daviess County Fiscal Court will be taking over the Daviess County Gun Club in an effort to bring it back to life after months of being closed down. County commissioners voted in approval Tuesday to have the Daviess County Parks & Recreation staff run the club, and officials say the ultimate goal is to turn the land into another county park.
“The fella that was running the gun club, his lease expired, and he has been asked to vacate the premises,” said Judge-Executive Al Mattingly. “Ross [Leigh] and I went out there — the door had been kicked in, the grounds were in terrible shape and there was a lot of trash.”
The Daviess County Gun Club, located in Maceo, was formed in 1969 on land purchased by Dr. Baker and Roy Rutledge. A clubhouse, run by Jim Murray, was built and a rifle range was installed at the location that borders Windy Hollow.
After that, the state of Kentucky purchased the gun club in 1972 and, in 1989, the state ceased operations and used the land as a demonstration area for wildlife-friendly plants. In 2002, Reid Harris expressed interest in redeveloping the gun club, and the state gave the property to Fiscal Court with the exception that it must always be used for shotgun shooting.
In 2002, the state valued the property at $232,000 for the use of a shotgun facility and hired two residents to run it. Fiscal Court granted them $100,000 cash to restore the property. In 2013, those individuals retired and the property was taken over by Jesse Pollock, who ran it for four years. Matt Snyder took over from that point, and, after experiencing an excessive amount of rain in 2017 and 2018, the property didn’t open during the second half of 2018 at all.
“My recommendation is that Daviess County take over the property from the government, put its operation under the parks department and allow them to run it,” Mattingly said.
Mattingly said Parks and Rec Director Ross Leigh has revamped his supervisory personnel, which will allow Fiscal Court to save $90,000 in salary and benefit costs. Fiscal Court can afford to hire two part-time employees who would work 1,200 hours a year to operate the gun club.
County Commissioner George Wathen expressed concerns over the burden of having the parks and rec department run the gun club. Questions were raised to Mattingly and the other commissioners over how profitable the gun club would be, as well as how the operations and memberships would be handled.
“Who’s going to mow it? Is the same guy going to mow it who’s going to operate it? We’re going to have to work out a plan — we don’t want him to put a sign on the door that says, ‘I’m mowing,’” Wathen said. “We’re going to be open, probably, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. We might be able to get by with two people.”
While Wathen claimed the gun club was relatively successful in the past, defining the word “successful” isn’t easy, he said.
“The guys that ran it — they didn’t need to make a bunch of money because they were retired and it was a hobby for them,” he said. “We believe that we will be able to pay our expenses, but we aren’t going to make much money.”
Compared to Fiscal Court’s entire budget, the expenses of running the gun club are minimal. But, after a fiscal year that put Fiscal Court at a $2 million deficit, the idea of making a large profit is enticing for county commissioners.
“Al thought we would have a $15,000 net profit, and I had a different number,” Wathen said. “I think mine was $3,000. If we run it, how much money are we going to make? See, as a [private] business, you can’t operate that business and make $3,000 a year.”
However, for the gun club to come out ahead financially with the parks department running it is a unique situation that doesn’t often happen.
“As a government, we don’t need to compete with the private sector,” Leigh said. “We’re not offering a pistol range, and we’re not offering a rifle range — this is a shotgun facility. Whitaker’s already offers that kind of stuff. Ours is much more competitive.”
Leigh and Wathen compared the sport of skeet shooting to golf, saying people would come out to shoot clay targets with shotguns on a competitive level. Even more, the gun club would host shooting competitions as part of their platform. The Daviess County Gun Club would be the only place in Daviess County where these kinds of tournaments would be held, Leigh said.
By offering 10 different shooting stations, with 10 shots allocated per person, the gun club has the potential to turn a profit.
“You can buy an annual membership, or you come out to shoot on an ‘as wanted’ basis,” Leigh said. “Essentially, it’s preestablished, where you work your way around the rotation throughout the property, just like a golf course.”
In fact, this 70-acre facility could be established as an official county park once everything is said and done.
“From the first day, the potential of this becoming a park started running through my mind,” Leigh said. “From our perspective, this just becomes another park where things like cross country races, baseball tournaments and disc golf events are offered. We’ll work with [everyone] to draw up a contract and make this happen. I’m ready to go right now and say, ‘Hey, we’re opening right now, so get ready and stay tuned.’”
