BELCHERTOWN — Changes at a longtime bow and gun club on the Granby-Belchertown line have angered some neighbors who say the noise has become unbearable.
Residents of both towns brought the issue of noise coming from the Granby Bow and Gun Club to the Granby Select Board July 10. The bow and gun club is owned by Debi and Andre Mercier and has been in existence since around 1950.
Two weeks later, residents from the two communities shared their anger with the Belchertown Select Board.
“It’s unrelenting. It’s unbelievably annoying to try and be able to enjoy what we should be able to,” Granby resident Douglas Zimmerman said at the July 10 meeting. “We should be able to peacefully enjoy our property and we can’t since this expansion.”
Zimmerman said he has lived at his School Street home for more than two decades and has “lived peacefully” with the bow and gun club until this last year.
Many others who spoke at the Granby meeting echoed Zimmerman’s sentiment.
A member of a gun club herself, Elaine Chaloux said she has lived on School Street for almost 40 years. She said they began to notice last fall that the gun noise was getting loud and could be heard from both inside and outside their home.
Adding a bit of humor, Belchertown resident Jean Whipple invited the Select Board over for margaritas so they could hear the noise firsthand from her Barton Avenue home, almost a mile from the club. Whipple was serious, though, in telling the board the noise has made her not want to be on her own deck.
“Our homes our are sanctuaries. We come home at the end of the day and we are tired and we just want to relax in our backyard and just listen to the birds or the lawn mower but what we hear is gunfire,” she said. “I’ve been there for almost 31 years now and I’ve never had any problem with the gun club.”
Now though, Whipple said, it’s hard to entertain guests.
Reached Monday, Debi Mercier said club officials were trying to be good neighbors as well as good citizens and hoped everything would end amicably. She referred the Gazette to the club’s hired counsel.
The club has taken the step of limiting the caliber of weapons that can be fired on the range.
The gun club’s attorney, Edward George Jr. of Woburn, said he would be at the Aug. 7 meeting of the Granby Select Board along with the Merciers, but declined to elaborate any further on the issue as he had yet to visit the site in Granby.
Granby Town Administrator Christopher Martin said Monday that the noise issue came to his attention at the July 10 Select Board meeting. Since then, he said he has been doing research on the property, permits and Massachusetts state law.
On July 24, Belchertown Town Administrator Gary Brougham didn’t mince words about the issue.
“It has essentially become so problematic for Belchertown residents, and some residents of Granby who live close to the facility, that in some cases they feel like hostages in their own home,” Brougham said. “There is no more quality of life … Folks are pretty upset about the whole situation.”
Brougham told the board that two years ago the bow and gun club engaged in a “very significant forest cutting operation,” which opened a large swath of the property that had been heavily forested.
“More recently, the shooting range that was on site has been reconfigured, which added considerable length,” Brougham said.
The rifle range is more than 1,000 yards long (around the length of nine football fields), which the private club boasts as the only one of its size in New England.
At the Belchertown meeting, at least one area resident said the noise had quieted down considerably since the Granby Select Board meeting.
The Belchertown board decided to send a letter to the Granby Select Board and requested an Aug. 10 response. Belchertown Select Board member Brenda Aldrich said she would attend the Granby board’s Aug. 7 meeting.
A post on the club’s Facebook page on July 21 notified members that there would now be a limit on the caliber of weapons allowed on the rifle range.
“We’ve been getting complaints from the neighbors about noise and large cal rifles,” the post reads. “I’m sorry for those who have 50s and .338s, but we have to do what’s best for the club, other members and the community. An email will also be sent out to members regarding these changes.”
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.