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* Les Winkeler reports on a deal between the Amateur Trapshooting Association and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to keep The Grand American shooting tournament from leaving Sparta’s World Shooting and Recreational Complex this August…
Gov. Rauner threatened to close the WSRC, ostensibly as a stick to spur the General Assembly into action, if a budget agreement wasn’t reached by September. And, so one of the world’s largest and most modern shooting facilities has been sitting idle since September.
Compounding the lunacy, Illinois Department of Natural Resources employees are still reporting to work on a daily basis. The state just isn’t allowing anyone to use the facility – sending the state even deeper into debt.
About mid-October the ATA, the body that produces the Grand American, started getting nervous, as well it should. The event attracts thousands of shooters from around the globe. The ATA had to know if Illinois would come to its collective senses, allowing the Grand American to remain in Sparta. […]
The details of the agreement won’t be announced until tomorrow. But, apparently if the state is still without a budget by April 15, the ATA will be given permission to operate the complex through the summer.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 11:52 am
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And the Grand Illinois Shooting Yourself In the Foot tournament proceeds apace…
– MrJM
Comment by @MisterJayEm Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 11:56 am
Shouldn’t be too expensive for the ATA if they can use the free state labor.
Privatized with a cherry on top?
Comment by walker Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 11:56 am
===But, apparently if the state is still without a budget by April 15, the ATA will be given permission to operate the complex through the summer.===
Hmm.
An agreement that stipulates a working range well through summer if the state is without a budget…
… what, a Rauner Agency is telegraphing that this “no budget” nonsense may go beyond April, and they need a plan…
… so the hostage of the range had its ransom “paid” by the ATA?
Oddest overall governing strategy by an Illinois governor… ever(?)
Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 11:57 am
Say it ain’t so!
Comment by Blue dog dem Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 11:58 am
Does anyone know offhand if the WRSC loses money every year? iirc, they at least break even.
Comment by Formerly Known As... Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 11:59 am
The RAUN Man wants to keep state senate seat in GOP hands. This, for southern Illinois standards, is a huge economic catalyst. Shiela may not be a great candidate, but this was a winning issue for her had my Beloved World Shooting Complex stayed closed. Rio here we come!!
Comment by Blue dog dem Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 12:02 pm
This will be the norm when your senate leader is saying no budget until 2020
Comment by Foster brooks Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 12:05 pm
No, like most state parks and the like it doesn’t operate in the ‘black’. But during the Grand, motels, restraunts are packed from Carbondale to Collinsville. Huge tourism boost.
Comment by Blue dog dem Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 12:06 pm
“The state just isn’t allowing anyone to use the facility – sending the state even deeper into debt.”
On the horizon, TURNAROUND AGENDA TAX. The new tax, brought to you by the skilled financial strategies of our new governor, needed to pay down the $9,000,000,000 expected backlog in bills.
Comment by cdog Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 12:17 pm
@Blue dog dem - well said. Gracias for replying.
Comment by Formerly Known As... Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 12:26 pm
Another Rauner leverage falls off the fulcrum.
Comment by Liberty Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 12:31 pm
May 28 2014 ==That backlog was at $4.7 billion earlier this month, according to the comptroller’s office. That’s down from nearly $10 billion four years ago.==
=On the horizon, DEMOCRATS AGENDA TAX REDUX. The new tax, same as the old tax, brought to you by decades of deficit spending and borrowing from our children. Even if Illinois balanced the budget today, the state would still run a deficit due to all the debt service payments.=
Just another $1 Bill or so to go until it’s time to enact the DEMOCRATS AGENDA TAX REDUX. /s
Comment by Formerly Known As... Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 12:34 pm
Our sorry governor.
Comment by Austin Blvd Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 12:44 pm
Shooting your nose to spite your face?
Comment by Chicago Cynic Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 12:44 pm
Blue Dog Dem, while during the Grand American the complex is full and delivers tourism to the region, the other 50 weeks a year it is mostly empty. It’s land acquisition and construction cost was well over $50 million. Not a smart investment for 2 weeks of economic activity a year. DNR senior management was gun ho on capturing a big national event and Blago wanted to reward Representative Dan Reitz, one of his few supporters. Today all the DNR executives and Reitz are gone but the boondoggle remains.
Comment by Sir Reel Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 1:03 pm
Not sure about the $$$ invested - probably about right, but it has never made money or operated at a profit, so it has always been a drain on the DNR budget.
Yet the state still has employees on the payroll to “work” there and, I suppose, they will be paid to get the property in shape just to turn it over to a private organization!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by illini Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 1:17 pm
As someone who uses the facility on a yearly basis as a “destination”. I would say I appreciate that the state built something that at least has a use. However I have to wonder if it would work better as a public/private partnership than run by IDNR. I’d be willing to bet that ATA and others would be interested in that concept while still having it add value to the local community. Having it sit managed and staffed but not available is ridiculous.
Comment by Greatplainser Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 1:18 pm
Sir Reel - please define “mostly empty.” Prior to closure there were numerous, smaller weekend trapshooting, cowboy action, instruction, fundraising, and other shooting events held at the shooting complex from April to October. These events brought in visitors and families from Illinois and from out of state. Maybe not thousands like the ATA Grand and the other affiliated youth trapshoot, but hundreds for those activities. That is money spent in Illinois and tax dollars generated for the state.
Comment by Motambe Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 1:52 pm
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/177fb60bfc894955a22984885c4d04ec/IL–Cold-Exposure-Deaths
I wonder if the utilities were connected at the residences of all 3 of these women.
Comment by crazybleedingheart Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 2:07 pm
Motambe, name a weekend event that approaches 50% capacity. The complex has 1000 campsites. That’s 3 times as many as the next largest DNR campground at Carlyle Lake. It has 3 miles of trap shooting. 3 miles.
I’m not saying the complex doesn’t generate economic activity. It does. But the issue is whether $50 million invested differently (infrastructure, higher education, etc.) could’ve produced a better return, especially year round.
Comment by Sir Reel Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 2:07 pm
Sir Reel; I must confess that when it comes to the World Shooting Complex I can see why someone questions its fiscal sanity. I truly prescribe to the theory that it’s only “pork” when it’s in somebody else’s district, but here’s my take. I am an avid hunter and gun owner. I worry about the future of hunting and gun rights because I think they go hand in hand. Kids today do not have the access to hunting that I had when I was young(due in large part to the demise of family farming). Any opportunity that presents itself to get kids involved in safe gun usage and ownership should, in my small mind, sow the seeds for future protectors of hunting and the second amendment. Yes, maybe a bit hypocritical, but I said it and I now can sleep better!
Comment by Blue dog dem Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 2:17 pm
The above post was not paid for nor endorsed by the NRA!
Comment by Blue dog dem Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 2:25 pm
Sorry about over doing this. Although originally from Southern Illinois, I now live in Lincoln Park. When open, I would drive down at least twice a month and in the process leave a small fortune with the locals.
Comment by Blue dog dem Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 2:30 pm
Has anyone read Finding 2014-001 in the Auditor General’s FY13/14 DNR Compliance Examination. It details the lack of controls in the management of the WSRC.
http://www.auditor.illinois.gov/Audit-Reports/Compliance-Agency-List/DNR/FY14-DNR-Fin-Comp-Full.pdf
It’s an interesting read!
Comment by anonymous Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 2:43 pm
Seems like this issue and many others in IL is like climate change. It’s helpful to not believe it. That way it takes no work & scares nobody. Everything will be OK folks.
But, there are now and will continue to be irreversible, negative consequences by not addressing climate change. Read the reports. And there is no ‘magic wand’ as is true in IL as well.
Similarly, we have started to see consequences in IL already and it can only get worse with the so-called ‘impasse’. As is said: once the handgun trigger is pulled, it’s too late to pull back the bullet.
Event planners, MAP grant dependees, non profit social services orgs, vendors waiting AND waiting for their due compensation and 100’s of other examples finally quit or move on or close. To the detriment of IL. Not only in Raunner’s ’short term pain’, but in far longer timeframes.
When you decide IL can not be trusted what’s next? Great professors leave, good students go to other states for education & don’t come back, companies are leery, people in need regress, and on and on.
The ‘Oh, it’s only short term pain to get a long term gain’ is crap. The damage is and WILL BE long term and won’t get cured soon and in some or many cases will never be back up to where to the level it has been for years.
How can nobody in the GA or Raunner’s SuperStarts figure this out? And how can they continue to allow this to happen? To IL? Consequences may be ‘unintended’, but they are there & they are all negative.
Or maybe nobody cares.
Comment by sal-says Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 3:10 pm
The ATA will be operating the complex?
Sounds like a violation of the AFSCME contract.
Comment by Juvenal Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 3:26 pm
Sir Reel - you are correct that the ROI on $50 million will take some years to recover if based solely on state tax revenue generated by the shooting complex visitors. The ROI to the area though is realized each year, especially for three to four weeks during the summer. As a shooter I enjoy having access to this facilty. As an educator, city official, and economic development officer I would much rather have the state invest in four lane highways in southern Illinois, industrial development parks and infrastructure, and advanced postsecondary high technology training academies. But for the terms of at least the last four governors we in southern Illinois have been told that the state’s plan for economic development in southern Illinois focuses on tourism and service jobs, based on outdoor recreation and the region’s natural beauty. It is a betrayal by our leadership when we are force fed that strategic plan and then one of the cornerstones is pulled out from under the foundation.
Comment by Motambe Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 3:27 pm
The Auditor Generals report was illuminating, but not surprising - thanks Anonymous.
What has this Pork Project actually cost the State since it has been closed?
Blue Dog and Sir Reel do make some good points, but I live in Southern Illinois, and contrary to many misconceptions, am not a hunter or gun owner, and could care less about this facility, other than its mismanagement and its continued cost to the State.
Sell the site to the NRA, let them run it! We are already selling the Thompson Center - why stop there.
Comment by illini Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 3:52 pm
motambe: spot on. Not too keen on industrial development parks though. I would much rather govt stick with things that private industry won’t do, like state parks,roads, large expansion of infrastructure.i know I am tightroping hypocrisy here. But hey, in a mostly liberal state like Illinois it’s nice to get some state sponsored ‘conservative’ freebies every once in awhile. Heck, they want us tax payers to pony up $400+million to bail out CPS and we know that is only a temporary fix. The $300,000 or so subsidizing WSC each year isn’t all bad if you can swallow that upfront surcharge. A little better management down there could possibly get the thing closer to a break even, but you know what, education counts for a little value doesn’t it?
Comment by Blue dog dem Wednesday, Jan 13, 16 @ 5:53 pm
Sir Reel- you are right, the Sparta complex was designed to pump up the depressed economy in southern IL. It’s really a large public works boondoggle for the 2nd Amendment crowd vote.
In order to be able to sell guns & ammo to out of state competitors who don’t have a FOID card, extremely dangerous language was inserted in the SB 836 “trailer” bill as a tradeoff to the State Police:
If a licensee carrying a firearm or a non-resident carrying a firearm in a vehicle under subsection (e) of Section 40 of this Act is contacted by a law enforcement officer or emergency services personnel, the law enforcement officer or emergency services personnel may secure the firearm or direct that it be secured during the duration of the contact if the
law enforcement officer or emergency services personnel determines that it is necessary for the safety of any person present, including the law enforcement officer or emergency services personnel. The licensee or nonresident shall submit to the order to secure the firearm. When the law enforcement officer or emergency services personnel have determined that the licensee or non-resident is not a threat to the safety of any person present, including the law enforcement officer or emergency services personnel, and if the licensee or non-resident is physically and mentally capable of possessing the firearm, the law enforcement officer or emergency services personnel shall return the firearm to the licensee or non-resident before releasing him or her from the scene and breaking contact. If the licensee or non-resident is transported for treatment to another location, the firearm shall be turned over to any peace officer. The peace officer shall provide a receipt which includes the make, model, caliber, and serial number of the firearm.
This language was inserted right under the Duty to Inform. I guess ambulance drivers and cops are now shrinks who can read your mind. The press release from ISRA touted SB836 as a great victory, because now CCL holders can flash their carry license instead of their FOID to buy ammo at WalMart. More great work from Rep. Brandon Phelps, the NRA & ISRA, and all the heroic defenders of the 2nd Amendment in southern IL.
Comment by Payback Thursday, Jan 14, 16 @ 10:01 am
While on the surface this looks like a huge win for the southern IL area. Tourism dollars stay, sales tax dollars stay, Sparta gets to keep the Grand! BUT this raises several questions for me that I hope will be answered at today’s presser.
During those three months will the complex and it’s shooting ranges, archery range, etc. be open to the public for use or will it only function for ATA related events?
Will the seasonal help usually employed by IDNR now be employed by ATA?
What of the employees currently there? Will they be under the management and control of the ATA?
How does this impact the current litigation and negotiation with AFSCME?Will ATA staff be operating and using IDNR equipment such a mowers tactors, shuttles etc?
Where will the fuel for this equipment come from? While everything heralds what a great thing this is and how much it brings to the southern IL economy, I’ve yet to hear a word about associated costs.
It does indeed have the potential to be an absolutely world class facility, but until IDNR either hires appropriately trained management staff or privatizes the entire works, it’s will continue to be very much the great Mid America Airport debacle.
Comment by Crabby Old Broad Friday, Jan 15, 16 @ 6:42 am
Along with all the other troubles, the electric bill for the Shooting Complex has not been paid in months and $230,340 was due Jan. 20, 2016 according to a Past Due Notice which cautions to “please pay immediately to avoid disconnect procedures.”
Comment by Electrician Tuesday, Feb 2, 16 @ 3:08 pm