By LINDA LEUZZI
One thing everyone can agree on
regarding the issues surrounding the
Southaven County Park Trap & Skeet
Range is that the same issues still
linger. But perhaps a ceasefire is
imminent. Last Wednesday, a ruling
by the Pine Barrens Commission led
by Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko
placed the shooting range under its
jurisdiction.
The decision also stated the
reopening of the range, which was
closed for use by the general public
by Suffolk County Parks because of
health, noise and safety violations
in 2001 and reopened in 2006,
constituted development because it
represented re-establishment of a
use that had been abandoned for one
year as defined in the Long Island
Pine Barrens Protection Act. There
was another directive. “It needs a
core hardship application,” said
current Pine Barrens Commissioner
John Pavicic. “And the commission
ordered Suffolk County to submit
such an application.”
At a raucous press conference on
Saturday at the range, Councilwoman
Connie Kepert (4th District) and
County Legislator Kate Browning (WF-Shirley)
announced a celebration of that
victory as well as Browning’s intent
to help move the facility to another
site, standing their ground in front
of Trap & Skeet supporters who
shouted and booed during their
presentations. Browning, who headed
up a Trap & Skeet Search Committee,
submitted a report with alternate
locations for the Yaphank facility
last March. Leading the
possibilities were the Long Island
Shooting Range of Brookhaven in
Ridge, the North Fork Preserve,
still in county negotiations and the
Long Island Beagle Club property in
Calverton, she said.
Mark Wrobel, the Hunter Sports
Shooting Grounds Inc. licensee, was
asked what the Pine Barrens ruling
meant to him and whether he would be
able to continue at the Gerard Road
site. “Right now it will be the
county’s decision,” he said,
standing by the entrance. “It’s in
the commission’s jurisdiction. I
don’t know if the county is legally
liable to do anything. And the
wording is all a matter of
interpretation. It wasn’t
abandonment. That sign’s been up
here since Day 1.”
A Suffolk County official said
the county would follow the ruling
of the courts. “In a previous
administration, the legislature
allocated funds to re-open the
range,” said Suffolk Parks Deputy
Commissioner Joseph Montuori, who
was just voted in by the legislature
as commissioner in an e-mail,
replacing Pavicic. “We’ve abided by
the directive of the legislature and
will follow any rulings so ordered
by a court as to the range’s
future.”
Lesko put it more succinctly:
“They disagree and there’s a
likelihood it will wind up in the
courts, but I’m going to attempt to
negotiate with the county in a way
that makes sense to everyone,” he
said. The hardship application was
like a waiver application, he said.
“It applies to properties in the
core or compatible growth area if a
project cannot comply with the
clearing limits.” Among the Trap &
Skeet’s legal issues were the
construction of a new deck and ramp
as well as the installation of 1,200
feet of fencing and the installation
of a 17-foot wooden noise barrier
wall on the sporting clay course
conducted without the review or
permission of the Pine Barrens
Commission. According to Pine
Barrens Commission minutes, that
project was deemed development at a
Dec. 15, 2004 Pine Barrens
Commission meeting and a request for
a hardship application was made back
then. At the Jan. 19, 2005 Pine
Barrens Commission meeting at
Brookhaven Town Hall, the hardship
application was withdrawn by Suffolk
County Parks. Also, Brookhaven’s
Town Code 85- 372 for non-conforming
use states discontinuance of any
nonconforming use for a period of
one year or more terminates its
designation.
The noise issue has also been a
running battle. The facility is open
five days a week from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. During 2009-2010, the town
issued 21 summonses against Suffolk
County and 32 against the Trap &
Skeet, said Kepert aide John Byrne.
“We’ve been taken to court for noise
violations by the town of Brookhaven
and they won,” Browning said.
“Initially, it was the vendor who
was ticketed. Then the county was
ticketed. In the contract, it says
the county executive has the
discretion to close the facility. He
hasn’t done that. If we continue to
get tickets, it’s going to get very
costly.”
The wrangling that has occurred
over the last few years at the
60-acre site, 43 of which are used
for the shooting range, represents a
volley of words and actions as
strong as the shots heard weekly.
One lane each way on Gerard Road
separates homeowners from the Trap &
Skeet. Supporters point out it was
there first and is one of the few
gun ranges around and Wrobel said in
a past interview the legislature
approved it with a 17-to-1 vote
after five major meetings. The
county has stated it generated
revenue and was one of a wide range
of activities provided for its
residents. But locals like Johan
McConnell, president of the South
Yaphank Civic Association and John
Palasek say that its creation
originated in the 1950s when it was
privately owned with a large buffer
of open private property and no
development around its perimeter.
When the nearby land was purchased
in the early 1990s, future
homeowners inquired several times
about its existence with comments by
officials that it was moving; one
document obtained by The Long Island
Advance includes a letter from the
county executive’s office that goes
back as far as 1993 to a constituent
complaining about the Trap & Skeet
that Suffolk County Department of
Parks, Recreation and Conservation
had been looking for a new location
for the range.
The promises apparently
continued. Chris and Joanna
Broszeit, who were debating quietly
with Trap & Skeet supporter Mark
Gorman, said they specificallycalled
the town and the county before they
purchased their home, five blocks
away, in early 2000. “We were told
it was abandoned and closed,” said
Joanna Broszeit. “Two years later,
it opened.” When Gorman, who hails
from Bay Shore, questioned the noise
impact with closed windows, Joanna
Broszeit said the noise from the
facility echoes all day and kept
their child from sleeping at times.
“It’s not a gun issue or a sportsman
issue,” she told Gorman. “It’s a
noise and environmental and a water
issue.” Right now, the town is also
in the middle of developing a
Carmans River Protection Plan and
the Trap & Skeet facility is a
stone’s throw away. Lead
reclamation, although promised as
forthcoming by licensee Wrobel, is
yet to take place. Last year,
then-county parks commissioner
Pavicic stated it would happen but
wouldn’t commit to a time frame.
The political paddle ball game
was addressed by Riverhead
Supervisor Sean Walter, who uses the
Ridge range occasionally himself, at
last week’s Pine Barrens Commission
meeting. Five members sit on the
board including three town
supervisors. Newly elected Walter
and Anna E.Throne-Holst,
Southampton’s supervisor, voted with
Lesko. DEC Regional Commissioner
Peter Scully abstained and the
county’s Department of Environment
and Energy Carrie Meek Gallagher,
who was reportedly present during
the meeting but did not vote and was
listed as absent. The county did not
comment on Gallagher’s no vote.
Pavicic, who served as Suffolk
County Parks Commissioner, said he
was recusing himself from Trap &
Skeet issues.
“I said it’s unconscionable that
this issue is before the Pine
Barrens Commission and we sit back
and do nothing and the commission
isn’t forced to do anything,” said
Walter, who began sitting on the
Pine Barrens Commission in January.
“And for it to languish doesn’t do
the gun club any good and the people
in the neighborhood any good.
Supervisor involvement hasn’t
happened for a long time. It’s our
responsibility to appear and I think
the other supervisors feel the same
way.” ■
