Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher told the Chattanooga City Council on Tuesday the Moccasin Bend police firing range needs $300,000 for immediate and necessary repairs.
"Where we stand, as we've discussed before, the range's current iteration needs some basic upkeep to be up to usable standards," Fletcher said.
Fletcher said he's asking the city government to pay half the $300,000 total bill and Hamilton County to pay the other half. Fletcher said in September his force "could fail to exist as a police department" if conditions aren't improved.
On Oct. 1, a committee was announced that will investigate moving the firing range from its current location. The firing range is enclosed on three sides by the Moccasin Bend National Archeological District and the other side by the Tennessee River. A timeline for potentially moving the range hasn't been established, and Fletcher said Tuesday the first committee meeting hasn't been scheduled yet.
"We have renewed our commitment to working with the community," Fletcher said of the committee. "To move forward on a solution for the next generation of firing range and what that would look like."
So in the meantime, before a new home for the firing range is found, Fletcher said the current Moccasin Bend firing range needs money to fix the old targeting system, buy portable force-on-force training systems for practicing nonlethal force techniques and updating the classroom.
"We have only selected improvements that are modular and largely portable," Fletcher said. "So that regardless of the future of the range, taxpayer dollars will be efficiently and effectively spent."
Brad Bennett, the superintendent of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, also spoke to the council Tuesday at the agenda session. He talked about the history of Moccasin Bend and how important the piece of property is to the future of the park.
He said the National Park Service is taking public comment now on what to do with the space and when the public has weighed in, Bennett will return to the City Council in 2016.
"We will come back with a preferred alternative," he said.
By early 2017, Bennett said planning will be done. With the $250,000 the Friends of Moccasin Bend has raised and the matching grant Bennett hopes the National Park Service can provide, the park will have half a million dollars to implement its plan.
Contact staff writer Evan Hoopfer at ehoopfer@timesfreepress.com or @EvanHoopfer on Twitter or 423-757-6731.