Sohn: Fire the gun range, not the park

Gunfire forced Brad Bennett, the superintendent of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, to pause as he talked last week about the future of the Moccasin Bend National Archaeological District.

Bennett stood beside the Tennessee River off of Hamm Road on what will become the entry to park. It is the same spot that next week will serve as the gathering point for a park show-and-tell when Chattanooga area residents finally get a chance to see options for the park and to offer their own ideas.

But as Bennett described some of those options and some of the public input opportunities, volleys of gunfire from the police training and firing range pounded through the crisp mid-morning air, competing with his words – even though the actual shots were being fired at least a half mile away.

The volleys provided the perfect example of why the Chattanooga and Hamilton County police firing range must be moved away from the new and future park – a park that has the potential to move Chattanooga tourism and culture forward like nothing else has since the Tennessee Aquarium was conceived and built.

The full development of a 755-acre national park in downtown Chattanooga will be a jewel in the center of our metro area – something very unique. And this park is not just any park. Not just another plot of land. Not just another set of trails.

The Bend’s Native American mounds and village sites represent 12,000 years of human habitation – along with a historic Trail of Tears route and a number of Civil War cannon mounts.

Already, a million people visit Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park each year. They spend $55 million dollars, creating almost 800 private sector jobs.

When Moccasin Bend is complete and open, those visitors will have another full day’s touring available in the heart of Chattanooga. That’s potentially another $55 million dollars and another 700 to 800 jobs here. Even conservative estimates put increased visitors and visitor spending at the Bend at around a quarter of the Chickamauga numbers.

In the last few months, however, just as the park’s planning and money-raising has reached full steam, Moccasin Bend’s future has been marred at the center by city and county talk of spending more “temporary” money – $300,000 – to keep the 33-acre firing range and its near-constant volley of practice gunfire and bomb squad detonations in place on the Bend for still more years to come. Our leaders couldn’t seem to understand that the U.S. Park Service is forging full steam ahead to begin building the park trails and facilities in just over a year – in 2017. Friends of the Park already has raised $250,000 and will raise much more.

What Chattanoogans don’t want – in fact, can’t abide – is for the building to have to be phased around a firing range that interrupts a visitor experience from day one and gives our park – and our city – a poor first impression.

Thankfully, Chattanooga and Hamilton County officials finally are moving off the dime and have formed a committee to look for ways to move the police firing range off of Moccasin Bend so that the Moccasin Bend National Archaeological District can reach its full potential.

But we – all of us – can help this new 16-member committee and Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger understand our hopes and dreams and demands for this long-awaited and too-long-delayed archaeological park.

Please attend one or both of the meetings this week on Tuesday and Thursday at the park’s planned entrance. Offer your input not only to push the firing range off the Bend sooner rather than later, but also to shape the park plan itself.

Let’s make sure we help our government leaders understand that this park can be their best legacy. Or it can be their greatest failure if they continue to be obstacles.

We have an opportunity – at long last – to realize an amazing national park in the center of our city.

Let’s not let anyone stand in the way.