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| Harvey Mayor Eric J. Kellogg adjourns a city council meeting. (Scott Strazzante, Chicago Tribune) |
Declaring that bullets are landing in neighbors’ yards, the mayor of Harvey pledged Thursday to shut down a gun range in the south suburb despite objections from the Harvey Park District, which owns the property.
The executive order Mayor Eric J. Kellogg pledged to issue Thursday is the latest episode in an intra-government spat over the range, which, depending on whom you ask, is either a safe facility used for law enforcement training or a grave danger to those nearby.
Kellogg said he sent police earlier this year to close the facility, but the range continued to operate after the park district took the city to court. After residents complained of bullets landing in their yards at a city council meeting earlier this week, Kellogg said he sent his police chief to investigate. Kellogg said he decided to intervene after the police chief found bullets.
“When residents have bullets lodged in their homes, I believe this is negligent and dangerous,” Kellogg said. “I think by closing the facility, it gives the residents an opportunity to exercise the freedoms of their home. They can live, rest and play on their properties.”
But Rick Hammond, attorney for the Harvey Park District, said the facility that his agency leases to a private security company is safe.
“There have been no incidents whatsoever and this is the second time in six months that the city of Harvey is trying to exert inappropriate authority over the Harvey Park District,” Hammond said.
The land in the 15300 block of South Campbell has been leased for use as a gun range for about a year, said John Howard, director of operations for the U.S. Investigations and Protection Agency, the private company that operates the gun range.
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