No Range for You!

Once again, the CPD Outdoor Range is in jeopardy of never being built:

• Chicago police are still pushing to build a shooting range on the Southeast Side even though Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Pat Quinn vowed last month to preserve nearby wetlands and abandoned industrial sites for open space, wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation.

  In a last-minute plea, conservationists are urging the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board to block the Police Department's bid for a plot across the Calumet River from Hegewisch Marsh, the centerpiece of a federal, state and local effort to turn the environmentally significant area into a tourist attraction. The elected board is scheduled to vote Thursday on a 39-year lease for the district-owned tract at 2025 E. 134th St.

Heaven forbid it's ever simple for us to get adequate equipment or training so we can do our jobs better, even in the face of studies that say a range wouldn't be an issue:

• A city study concluded that noise from up to 40 practice shooters would barely be perceptible in the ecologically sensitive areas nearby. Any audible noise from the gun range, the report said, would be at a level similar to normal speech 3 feet away.

Good thing the conservationists and environmentalists don't have a united front:

• "We've always envisioned there would be mixed uses in the reserve," said John Rogner, assistant director of the state Natural Resources Department and a prominent Chicago-area conservationist. "We don't see this (gun range) as incompatible with the overall plan."

There's still a chance.