The fact contractors toured the Moccasin Bend law enforcement firing range Tuesday and will submit bids by next Thursday on lead remediation at the site is an indication the wheels have finally begun to roll on turning the property over to the National Park Service.
While we may bemoan the fact it wasn't done years earlier, we celebrate this step nonetheless.
Local officials agreed in principle more than 10 years ago to relocate the firing range to give the park a contiguous piece of property for the eventual Moccasin Bend National Archaeological District, but the start and stop on the building of an indoor range on 12th Street and the dogged desire by law enforcement officials to keep the Moccasin Bend site have delayed action.
And, of course, when three and four governments are involved, progress grinds extraordinarily slowly.
A firing range committee of city and county officials, law enforcement officials and National Park Service personnel established 10 months ago resolved informally to have a solution in place within a year. Pinpointing a new location, establishing law enforcement needs and putting in place funding strategies in the next few months will be a tall order, but we hope it will occur before long.
However, since National Park officials said they cannot accept the property until it is remediated, Tuesday's action was primary. An environmental assessment, now two years old, showed about 6,147 tons of surface soil across five acres of the range contained more than the federal limit of lead from fired bullets. Water flowing over that soil eventually makes its way to the Tennessee River, necessitating the need for a fix.
City engineer Bill Payne said the city could treat the runoff or remove the lead. The decision to remove the lead, not an inexpensive option, was the right one. In August 2014, city and county officials were told environmental cleanup would be $1.2 million. Now two years later, no up-to-date figure is available for the work, but the City Council and County Commission already have allotted $300,000 for it.
Brad Bennett, superintendent of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, said last September that the first phase of work at the 10-acre gateway to the park should be underway within two years. Now, that's just over a year away.
It would be wonderful to believe that when that work begins, remediation on the Moccasin Bend firing range would be done or in its final phase and that the completion of a new range - for the very important work of training and sharpening the skills of local law enforcement officers - was well underway.