ASHEBORO – The Asheboro Police Department is looking into reopening the old shooting range on Old Lexington Road.
At the Asheboro City Council’s May meeting, Asheboro police chief Robert Brown Jr. discussed the process the department is undergoing toward that goal.
The North Carolina Department of Labor had conducted a test last year that determined officers were being exposed to a high level of lead at the Randolph Community College’s Emergency Services Training Center.
Traditionally, the department would bring 18 people to the range for qualifications which takes them about a week, Brown said. But the recommendation from the NCDOL was to reduce the number per trip to eight, which could take up to two weeks or more to get the entire department qualified.
“With fewer officers being able to train and qualify, more time and additional days must be requested at the training center,” Brown said. “This is a challenge because approximately 15 agencies utilize this facility. So we’re determining if opening the old police shooting range is possible.”
The old shooting range, which hasn’t been utilized by the department since 2000, would provide an area to be able to get through their testing and qualifications much quicker.
“Our operational plans for the range is for it to only be used by the Asheboro Police Department for authorized training,” Brown said. “It wouldn’t be open to the public or any other law enforcement agencies.”
Brown said there would be no shooting before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m. at the range. The range would be utilized periodically for open range training, SWAT training, spring and fall firearm testing, new employee qualifications, department firearm instruction training and test-firing weapons.
The city has already purchased Hesco barriers to help protect the bank of John Bunch Lake.
While no formal vote took place, the council was in support of continuing to pursue reopening the range.
Rezoning requests
The council held a public hearing for a rezoning request for just more than 2 acres of property located at 721 Sunset Ave. and 129 South Cherry St. from Office Apartment and High-Density Residential (OA6/RA6) to OA6 conditional zoning (OA6-CZ) to allow for the construction of a two-story apartment complex with 44, one-bedroom units divided between two buildings.
The applicant will also construct a sidewalk along South Cherry Street and a connection to Sunset Avenue per the application.
The council also held a hearing for a rezoning request for approximately 6 acres of property located at 124 Woodcrest Road to an amended General Industrial conditional zoning district (I2-CZ) to allow for manufacturing, processing, and assembly-heavy, specifically for the use of the property as a machine shop along with auxiliary open storage.
“Back in 2021, this property was rezoned for a warehouse and wholesale distribution land use,” said John Evans, community development director. “It was the Hunt Electric Supply that has since relocated, so this is for a new user, a machine shop.”
The applicant is proposing no site or building changes as part of the request.
The council also held a hearing for a rezoning request for 3.25 acres of property located on Mountain Road, Lincoln Avenue and Springdale Lane to go from High-Density Residential district (RA6-CZ) to a Medium-Density Residential district (R10-CZ) for the purpose of constructing seven single-family lots and an additional two lots that can be either single-family or two-family dwellings.
The council held a hearing for a special use permit request for property located at 2112 South Fayetteville St. for the construction of a billboard.
Following each hearing, the requests were approved by the council.
The Asheboro City Council will next meet June 5.
