October 15, 2009
Kicking Horse lends a helping hand to Mission Valley Shooting club
Kate Haake/Valley Journal
Ken Howlett discusses mechanics with Kicking Horse Job Corps students Joaquin Monje of Phoenix, Ariz., and Bryan Franks of Deer Lodge. The students were fixing a piece of heavy machinery at the Mission Valley Shooting Club. By Kate Haake
Valley Journal
RONAN — For the second year in a row, Kicking Horse Job Corps is lending manpower and knowledge to the Mission Valley Shooting Club.
This year, the shooting club received a $64,726.57 grant from Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks to make a few necessary improvements to the range, located outside of Ronan. After the successful construction of a pistol range last year, the shooting club asked the Kicking Horse Heavy Machinery Department to donate volunteer hours again.
The grant requires that the shooting club must meet more than half of that amount in monetary contributions and/or labor from the community, and they hope they can count on volunteer labor contributions to fund the $32,930.
“We were lucky to get the grant,” shooting club event coordinator Tom Fieber said.
Fieber explained that Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks had a budget of only $300,000, and there was a certain amount of competition from other shooting ranges to obtain a grant from the department.
Fieber started the grant in January and plans to end construction by June 1, 2010.
The students at Kicking Horse and instructor Ken Howlett have already finished installing an underground electrical pipe, which will eventually feed electricity to the existing range house and supply floodlights to the pistol range, 22-rimfire range and archery area.
They are also working on a multitude of other improvements to the shooting range. By December, they plan to complete a gravel road, safety berms, enclosing the rimfire range, an archery area and a culvert to provide access to the 200 and 300-yard backstops.
The improvements will also make the shooting range accessible to handicapped people.
“I think it opens it up so more people can utilize (the club),” Fieber said. “(The improvements) allow us to have more organized events.”
Fieber said they are also "greatly indebted" to Kicking Horse for the work they are doing.
Howlett flexibly works with the Kicking Horse students’ schedules. He said some of the students at Kicking Horse are also completing high school diplomas and driver education courses, while working part time with him on the shooting range project.
“One week they go to school and the next week they bounce (here) to heavy equipment,” Howlett said.
On Monday morning, Howlett was obviously proud of the progress of his students. Out of earshot of the group that was busy fixing a large piece of equipment, he describesd them as “well-behaved” and said they “do a real good job of it.”
Members of the shooting club are also grateful for the labor contribution from Kicking Horse.
“Without their help we wouldn’t be able to put this program together,” Fieber said.
Feiber also mentioned that for the safety of the Kicking Horse students during construction, the shooting club will only be open on weekends. |
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