Neighborhood upset about noisy gun range

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    Grandview, Mo (KCTV/KSMO) — When a small red triangular flag starts waving across the road from Greg and Colleen Melchior’s house, everyone on the street knows what they’re about to hear.

“It’s terrible,” Greg said. “When it goes on day in and day out it gets to you.”

The couple lives across the road from a city-owned gun range, used primarily for police training and certification. For most of the 30 years they’ve lived here, an older facility behind the trees seemed to dampen most of the noise.

But a newer range, built slightly up the hill from the old one, seems to reflect the sound of gunshots right at their house.

“Sometimes it’s enough to shake the house,” Colleen said.

In February, KCTV5 reported that the problem had gotten so bad, the city agreed to install sound new sound absorbing tiles and make other improvements to reduce the noise.

Once the additions were complete in March, reporters observed as the city tested the new sound barriers with an independent engineering firm.

“We were hoping that would fix it,” Colleen said.

The city’s test data shows that the improvements to the facility did actually reduced the noise level to one decibel lower than the old range the Melchior’s lived near for nearly 30 years.

But to the neighborhood, the gun range still seems too loud. He noted that the noise seems especially bothersome when police use the range after dark. Currently officers are allowed to use it until 10pm.

“We know what we’re hearing,” Greg said.

Valarie Poindexter, a spokesperson for the city, said in an email to KCTV5 that city leaders had been out to the neighborhoods to listen to the noise levels. Some residents have suggested adding a roof to better contain the sound. The city estimates that those additions could cost nearly $5 million.

“The City has been responsive to concerned citizens since the range first opened,” Poindexter wrote, “and included them throughout the process of sound-reducing measures, sound studies, etc.”

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