Rifle range fees sent to Carson City supervisors for approval

The first fee schedule for the Carson Rifle and Pistol Range is headed to the Board of Supervisors for approval.

The fee schedule was put together by the Range Task Force, a group created by Carson City to deal with issues at the range, and forwarded to the Parks and Recreation Commission, which voted Tuesday to recommend it to the board. The vote was 5-1 with Kurt Meyer voting no.

Meyer’s main objection was to the division of fees between in-state and out-of-state residents.

“I appreciate that someone in Mound House is closer to the range than someone in Silver Oak, but they don’t go to city hall and pay taxes here,” Meyer said.

An initial draft of the schedule proposed charging separate fees for Carson City residents and everyone else, but the task force decided different fees for Nevada residents and out-of-state shooters were more fair and easier to enforce.

The fees as recommended to the board are daily charges for shooters of $5 for Nevada residents and $10 for everyone else. An annual pass for adults is $50 or $100, $25 and $50 for youth, and $75 and $150 for families. The schedule also includes charges for businesses and organizations, and disabled veterans.

The commission also forwarded the master plan for Ross Gold Park to the supervisors after making one modification.

The plan called for rehabbing existing tennis courts there into one tennis court and four pickleball courts, which together are the same size as a tennis court.

But, the commission decided to make them two tennis courts after a lengthy discussion on pickleball earlier in the meeting.

Dave Whitefield, a commission member, gave a presentation on pickleball and advocated for creating outdoor courts at Mills Park by converting one or two tennis courts there. During public comment, tennis players said the Ross Gold Park courts were some of the only courts left in the city that were used.

The Ross Gold Park master plan also includes universally-accessible playground equipment, which has already been installed, and new picnic shelters, reduced turf, and removal of the irrigation pond there to be replaced by two smaller water features.

The commission also heard a presentation Eagle Valley Golf Course. In March 2018, operations of the city-owned course was taken over by Duncan Golf Management under a five-year license agreement.

After that, the management company spent $350,000 on new maintenance equipment and replaced the fleet of golf carts.

In 2018, the course’s profit was $66,000 and revenue for 2019 is expected to be $1.5 million.