No progress made on shooting range for Donora police

By KRISTIE LINDEN

klinden@yourmvi.com

Despite some conversation earlier in the year about installing a shooting range for police officers in Palmer Park, the facility hasn’t been built.

According to Donora Administrator Terri Petroske, the borough hasn’t been able to find an insurance policy that will cover the shooting range.

Petroske told council last week the borough’s current insurance company will not cover a shooting a range, so the borough has put it out to a broker to try to find a company that will offer a special policy just for the range.

In March, just before everything began to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic, council agreed to start work on a range at the park where officers could train, practice and complete their yearly qualifying tests.

Superintendent Jim Brice said at the time there was a shooting range installed in the park in the 1990s that was used for about 15 years before it was shut down.

Brice said he’d talked to council members who were supportive about bringing it back twice over the years, but each time the topic was agreed to and then the project stalled.

The range would be in the same general area as the original one, toward the left of the Palmer Park entryway, pointed toward the river rather than up toward the park.

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