Officials with the Daviess County Parks Department say the Daviess County Gun Club will soon be open for business.
The gun club will specifically serve as shotgun shooting facility and is expected to open back up on Oct. 5. Daviess County Fiscal Court passed an ordinance in August to take over operation of the gun club under the county parks department.
So far, Daviess County Parks and Recreation Director Ross Leigh said six events have been scheduled for the facility, though these events are held each year. No new events have been scheduled as of yet.
“We have some organized high school trap teams that will use the facility for their own purposes,” he said. “The events we have lined up are private activities, private shoots, and there are two private fundraisers being held.”
At Tuesday’s Fiscal Court meeting, an ordinance was passed that allows the County to hire two parks employees to run the gun club. Leigh said one of those employees will work full-time, and the other will work at the facility part-time.
“We’ll have the ability to move them around,” Leigh said of the new hires. “With private events, [the clients] kind of manage themselves, but there’s still expectations from hosts to have their equipment restocked.”
Whether the gun club will become a popular attraction for the area is still up in the air, Leigh said.
“I’d like to be able to say ‘yes,’ but these scheduled events have been hosted at the property for a number of years. When private contractors ran events in the past, we wouldn’t have known,” he said. “But this gives us time to work out the kinks. We don’t expect Oct. 5 to be, like, the opening of an IKEA, but it’ll be nice to get our ducks in a row.”
Fiscal Court voted in unanimous approval Tuesday to hire Zach Crisp as gun club operator upon successful completion of pre-employment screenings. Daviess County Judge-Executive Al Mattingly bragged on Leigh’s hard work in getting the gun club up and running again.
“Ross has been working very closely with everybody trying to get the official opening ready for Oct. 5,” he said. “We are very pleased to have Mr. Crisp agree to take over management of the gun club. I think he may be the key to its success.”
The Daviess County Gun Club will be a unique facility that only offers shotgun sports shooting to clients. Though Leigh said discussions have been had about allowing pistol shooting, that just wasn’t in the cards.
“The facility just isn’t designed for that,” he said. “Archery will be the next step we take, but we’re not sure when that will take place yet.”
The Daviess County Gun Club is located at 7740 State Route 2830 in Maceo.
