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KEVIN GUTTING

This family-owned shooting range at 74 Village Hill Road has been the subject of controversy in Williamsburg. In the latest development, residents have collected some 100 signatures on a petition supporting the family which owns the range.

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KEVIN GUTTING

This sign greets visitors to 74 Village Hill Road in Williamsburg along a road that leads to a shooting range that has been the subject of controversy.

WILLIAMSBURG - A longtime Williamsburg shooting range whose owners were fined this summer for violating zoning board regulations following complaints from neighbors is now receiving support from other residents who say the business has been targeted unfairly.

Asserting that the range has operated within the law, a group of residents has spent the last month gathering some 100 signatures on a petition expressing support for the Hodgkins family, the property owner. The petition is the latest development in the ongoing dispute between the 74 Village Hill Road range and some of its neighbors, who since 2010 have raised concerns about the noise and safety of the range operations.

Robert Parker, of Lawton Hill Road, and Chris Duval, of Hyde Hill Road, spearheaded the petition drive. Parker said they have been gathering signatures since mid-August.

Reached at home Monday, Robert C. Hodgkins said he is grateful to the people who took the time to gather the signatures and present them to selectmen at a meeting last week. Hodgkins maintains that he is well within his legal rights to use firearms on the property.

"It is a very nice show of support," he said. "To be hit with a fee of $175 to address a $100 fine is ridiculous, especially when I should never have received the fine in the first place. I have had a dozen or so people offer to pay it for me because they think it is so unfair."

Parker and Duval presented the petition Thursday to the Select Board. It reads, in part: "It is legal for Mr. Hodgkins to possess firearms legally, and to discharge them legally, on his own private property as long as he does so within the written letter of the law."

The petition further suggests that the law has "been grayed" to assuage complaints about a "perceived problem" that shooting range supporters maintain does not exist.

After Building Inspector Louis Hasbrouck issued a Notice of Violation and a $100 fine Aug. 16 to Robert C. Hodgkins for exceeding acceptable patterns of use and scale on the family property, Parker and Duval said they decided it was time to speak out.

"The building inspector fined them $100 based only on the say-so of the same people who have been against them all along," Parker said.

According to Duval and Parker, 80 percent of the people on the petition live within half a mile of the range and most have a long history in the area.

"Some have lived here for 30 to 50 years. I have lived here for 54 years tomorrow. I have never been bothered by the range, and I can tell you right now, nobody was firing machine guns there on that date," Duval said.

Hasbrouck issued the violation and fine following a February 2011 decision by the Zoning Board of Appeals, which mandated that the range operators scale back their shooting activities to pre-2003 levels and prohibited the commercial testing of weapons on the land.

According to a police incident report, complaints were received from five residents on July 29, stating that machine gun fire and explosions could be heard coming from the Hodgkins property, violating the ZBA ruling.

In a subsequent investigation, Hasbrouck found Hodgkins in violation of the ZBA decision.

At the selectmen's meeting Thursday, Parker said the decision to fine Hodgkins was based on the erroneous claims of individuals who did not see the weapons fired, and who could not accurately discern what types of weapons they were hearing.

Selectmen told residents that while they appreciated hearing their concerns, the issue rests with the ZBA.

"Obviously, you put a lot of work into this and we appreciate hearing your concerns. But we have said this to other people that were here at the last meeting to talk about the shooting range - there is very little that we can do at this board," Chairman Jeffery Ciuffreda said. He said the board would pass the petition on to the ZBA.

"We share in the frustrations of both sides and we have always been serious about helping to find a middle ground," Ciuffreda said.

Selectman Dave Mathers told residents that while the issue rests with the ZBA, the time for Hodgkins to appeal the February ZBA decision had long since passed.

"Once that decision was made, there was a 20-day period for an appeal. That period has lapsed," Mathers said.

"I think the selectmen received the petition well," Parker said afterward. "I understand they have to stay neutral and I think they are. We brought it to the selectmen because we didn't feel right calling a special zoning board meeting just to present a petition. If anything, the Hodgkins family knows that they have support in town."

While Hodgkins' opportunity to appeal the ZBA decision no longer exists, he can still appeal the fine leveled by the building inspector.

According to Town Clerk Brenda Lessard, in order to appeal the $100 fine, Hodgkins would have to pay $175 in application and filing fees, plus $1.50 to notify each abutter to the Hodgkins property. To date, no official appeal has been filed.