Union supervisors formalize opposition to proposed shooting range
RINGTOWN – The Union Township Board of Supervisors formalized their opposition Tuesday night to a proposed gun range at a survival school in Pattersonville.
Supervisors voted unanimously to approve a resolution requesting that the Schuylkill County Zoning Hearing Board deny the special exception request for the Wowak property on Shenandoah Road in Pattersonville.
The vote came after several residents from the village raised their concerns to township supervisors, one of which asked their position.
Dan Wowak operates Coalcracker Bushcraft, a survival and outdoor school, at his property near Shenandoah Road and Jerry’s Road in Pattersonville and is asking the Schuylkill County Zoning Hearing Board to approve a special exception to allow the addition of a shooting range to the property.
The property is zoned agricultural.
Zoners were scheduled to hear the application at their July 1 meeting. A Sentinel reporter arrived at the courthouse at that time to find a sign on the door noting that the hearing had been continued at the request of the applicant and that a new public notice would be issued with the new date.
Union Township Supervisor Dave Briggs said he believed the matter will be on August’s agenda.
In a social media post in June, Brooke Wowak, Dan’s wife, explained that the range “would be placed in an area that is far enough from homes with enough wooded area behind the range (as stated in the law). We would also be sure to build the range to NRA specifications (as stated in the law). Also, one of our instructors at the school has received his NRA Range Officer Certification.”
“There will not be constant gunfire, nor will the range be open to the public,” Brooke Wowak wrote. “We also do not have any plans to have shooting training courses.”
“It’s like a pandora’s box,” one neighbor said at Tuesday night’s meeting of the potential zoning approval. He did not provide his name. “You open it up and there’s no closing it.”
In the resolution, read aloud by Bob Matta, solicitor, the township cited noise and safety concerns regarding the potential addition.
In other business, township supervisors expressed kudos to Police Chief Phil Beaver who helped organize the recent, successful fireworks show in the valley.
The township also accepted bids for the barn roof at the municipal complex. HPCI, of Kulpmont, was awarded the contract at a cost of $95,397.
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