Orange : County to Pay $250,000 to Repair Pistol Range

The Board of Supervisors said Tuesday that it intends to spend an estimated $250,000 to renovate the pistol range at the Orange County Sheriff’s Academy in Orange, which was closed a year ago after stray bullets began falling to the ground outside the range.

County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish said that building a new range at the Musick jail annex near El Toro would cost an estimated $2 million to $3 million, making it more economical to fix up the Orange facility.

Parrish said that closing the firing range has cost the county about $72,600 a year in lost revenue and added expenses, primarily from having recruits use the South Coast Gun Club for target practice.

The county began using the Katella Avenue facility in 1963, a year after the Orange County Peace Officers Assn. deeded it to the county on the condition that it be used to train peace officers, Assistant Sheriff Walter Fath said.

“We’ve continued to use it in a training capacity, to use the classrooms,” Fath said, even though the range was closed in October, 1984. He said a construction design to halt the problem of ricocheting bullets is almost complete and a contract to repair the range could be awarded next month.

Problems with the range surfaced two years ago, when tenants of an office building across Katella Avenue began finding lead rounds in the parking lot and on the roof of their building. Sheriff’s deputies made several adjustments to the range, but when the problem continued the range was closed.