2017-01-17 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – January 17, 2017 TL: The guy that complains up at Hakalau – how many yards away was he? JO: I’ll tell you a little story and this gets back to and one of the other factors is community acceptance. That’s one of the challenges we still have at Puuanahulu, ah, when we were there at Hakalau – about two years before C. Brewer sold the 500 and something acres to one developer – they had sold a portion – a 50-acre parcel to a person from California who contacted us – or whose realtor actually contacted us and said, we’re considering buying this property for somebody that raises horses out there and they want to know if it’s gonna be a problem – so when do you folks shoot – how loud is it – and so we told him well we’re gonna have a high power rifle match on the following Sundays so that’s where we have the garands and the, ah, AR-15s and some of the louder rifles that we own out there so, you know, come on up and listen, so – and we didn’t hear anything more – until we found out later on that the party had bought the property and no sooner had the ink dried – the mayor, the county council, the state health department, the police department, the prosecutor’s office, the state – every state politician – was getting letters from this buyer saying – when are you going to shut this range down – it’s a hazard, it’s noisy, it’s scaring my horses – so, of course, C. Brewer was a very good landlord – they said, no, the gun club’s a very good tenant – they’re staying. The buyer was very persistent and it never stopped, and in fact – it was probably a mile and half away from our site – another neighbor – another person bought a property up above that one about, oh, maybe, a half mile up – who’s an avid shooter – a friend of mine from Oahu and every time he goes to shoot on his property the police get the call and of course, he calls the police ahead of time and says I’m going to be practicing and so neighbors can be a real challenge. Noise issues have not abated it and there was no – in defense – there was no noise abatement at either of these sites so, ah, sound, if not dealt with – and there are lots of good strategies and materials you can use to significantly reduce the noise emanating from a range. There are outdoor ranges that operate in the city of San Diego that were limited to, you know, Saturdays only. These are police and sheriff training ranges because of noise complaints – when they did the sound abatement – they were able to operate every day and even into the evening hours without, without major complaints. TL: What do you use for sound abatement? JO: Well, there’s a number of things you can do – the design of the facility itself, you know, what you have – back walls, ah, there are sound deadening materials you can use – one of them is a specific type of concrete panel that is very good at absorbing the real high shock of firearms discharge and it’s a – it’ll result in a 15 DB or better lowering of 24