Manassas city council authorizes design contract for police gun range

By Kipp Hanley

Published: August 4, 2008

The Manassas City Council authorized Mayor Hal J. “Harry” Parrish II to sign an agreement for the preliminary design of police training facility on Monday.

The design work, which will be performed by architectural firm Clark Nexsen, will cost the city $166,735. The bulk of that money was budgeted in fiscal 2008 but went unspent.

The police department came to the council in 2007 regarding the need for a firing range and training facility and then came back again last month. City police currently practice twice a year at an Orange County Sheriff’s Department range on a gentleman’s agreement of about $2,000 a year.

But the inconvenience of driving the 120-mile round trip, along with lower shooting scores has the police department worried about possible lawsuits stemming from the improper use of deadly force.

Major Don McKinnon said the entire project, which could be built on city-owned land between Godwin Drive and Dean Drive near the Norfolk Southern railroad, will likely cost $3.5 million.

The cost was nearly double of the initial estimate they received from a local architect last year. This is due primarily to the material required in this type of facility, which include a dynamic but highly expensive Heating and Air Conditioning system as well as what McKinnon referred to as armor-plated steel necessary for the range area of the building.

There are no American companies capable of producing this type of steel now due to the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, McKinnon said. However, the design people he spoke with said that they can work around this issue and that it wouldn’t necessarily delay the construction of the facility.

Clark Nexsen designed the federal law enforcement training center in Glynco, Ga., used by the Department of Homeland Security.

Also on Monday, council referred a request to immediately hire already budgeted staffing for the fire and rescue departments to the finance committee for its approval.

Eleven positions were approved in fiscal 2009 for the new fire and rescue combined department by council but had not been advertised yet.  On Monday, city manager Lawrence Hughes told council that just in the last seven days, city fire and rescue personnel had worked 1,000 hours of overtime and that immediate approval of more staffing was needed.

The finance committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at the second floor conference room in City Hall.