Living in the country is great...until city folks move in next door.

And in Ohio we have a case of two self-absorbed yuppie "artists" who bought a house knowing that it was next to a Boy Scout camp that has been teaching shooting to kids for over sixty years and who are now trying to get the camp's range shut down.

HENRIETTA TOWNSHIP -- Deborah Banyas and her husband, Terry Speer, thought they were buying their dream house in the rolling farmland of southwestern Lorain County 10 years ago. Then the gunfire started, spoiling their idyllic retreat.

The source of the gunfire is a shooting range at the neighboring Firelands Scout Reservation on Gore Orphanage Road.

"It's constant banging all day long," Banyas said. "Even if we go in the house, close the windows and turn up music, it's loud. It never stops."

But that's not exactly true. According to the Scouts,

shooting only happens 9 a.m. to noon and 2 to 5 p.m. on weekdays during the five weeks camp is open. Children also shoot 7:30 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday nights during camp. There is also shooting six to 10 Saturdays a year and one day of shooting when the Young Marines come to camp.

That's hardly "constant" or even regular. Five weeks in the summer during set daytime hours, and six to ten Saturdays. And what do scouts shoot? .22 rifles and small-bore shotguns. Nothing large or noisy.

Since 1998, the couple have lived on their 20-acre property, home to their Riverdog Art Studio, where the two artists create mixed-media sculptures. They said they have a hard time working with all the racket coming from the 450-acre reservation next door.

Banyas said the noise is at its worst during the annual six weeks of summer camp, which ended recently, when the shooting goes on all day long. But the noise also continues much of the year, she said. It got worse three years ago when the camp put up a metal roof over part of the range.

"Now the gunfire echoes even louder," she said.

Palli Holubar, who has lived nearby since 1998, said she gets frustrated at the "endless staccato and noise." The blasts intrude on simple pleasures like Sunday morning walks on her property.

Camp Executive Director Barry Norris said the camp has been there for more than 60 years and the Scouts have worked hard to be good neighbors. The shooting ranges are needed so the Scouts can qualify for merit badges.

And it's not like the Scouts haven't been trying to fix things. Norris explains:

"We put up wooden panels to deaden the noise and covered some with carpet. . . . We moved our shotgun range to the other side of the camp. We eliminated the black powder gun demonstrations because they were too loud," he said. "I don't know what else we could do."

Three township trustees inspected the range and were satisfied with what they found, Township Trustee Butch Born said.

And of course the hippies claim that the Scouts shoot machine guns, a claim that the Scouts deny. Rick Cloud, program director for the Scouts’ Heart of Ohio Council, said no one is permitted to shoot automatic or semiautomatic weapons. He also said that the Scouts tried to soundproof the range near Banyas that is used for .22-caliber rifles and that neighbors have put loudspeakers on the edge of the property to harass the Scouts and cursed in the presence of children.

Banyas said the loudspeakers were used only once, on July 4 weekend.

Speer acknowledged using a “rather nasty” word to camp Ranger Dan Thomas while calling him a liar, but Speer said no children heard him.

So what we have here is hippies lying about the level of annoyance and also putting up loudspeakers and cursing at the Scout Leader. That makes it pretty clear just what sort of folks these "artists" are. I wouldn't want them as my neighbors either.

Cutting to the chase, I think it's obvious what this is about. It's nothing more than a couple of elitist leftist hippie-types who undoubtedly hate guns, hate the Scouts, and just want to drive them off the land that they were using before these whiners were even born. They couldn't possibly have not known about that camp and it's activities before moving in had they exercised even a tiny bit of diligence and asked their realtor or any of the other neighbors. They knew that they were moving in next to a place where wholesome American kids learned valuable skills, including marksmanship and hunter safety. This is just another example of someone who moves from the city out to a nice country environment and then tries to bring all the city rules and regulations with them to impose on the people that were there first.

And what is it that these "artists" create that requires so much silence? Is it something worthy of Rembrandt, Degas, Van Gogh or Renoir?

Nah. It's just a bunch of fake-assed African schlock where guys in suits worship antelopes.
Yeah, that's sure worth more than guiding and teaching hundreds of young men every year.
Damn hippies need to move in next to Lagniappe and me. We'd make it a point to run at least one belt through the Browning every evening just to help them put the Boy Scouts and their occasional use of single-shot .22's in perspective. ......................................."Yo! Hippies! GET SOME!"......................................


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