Freeholder hopeful bashes firing range costs
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER
Staff Writer

Republican Freeholder candidate Andrew Tidd thinks the county is spending way too much for a police firing range on Crows Mills Road in Woodbridge.

Tidd contends the $1.2 million rifle range is basically "a sand berm" for officers to shoot into.

"That's ridiculous," said county Administrator Walter A. DeAngelo. "He doesn't know his stats."

The project went out to bid and was awarded to the lowest bidder, Dumor Contracting, of Elizabeth, for $1.2 million. The only other bid was for over $1.5 million, DeAngelo said.

The specifications were developed by Woodbridge in cooperation with the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office, he said.

"We provided the funding, but Woodbridge bid the project," DeAngelo said.

A police firing range requires a more sophisticated facility than a gun club because of safety concerns, DeAngelo said.

"This is a police range," he said. "It's not a range where people come on the weekend and pay $5 and shoot. He just doesn't get it."

Most backstops at firing ranges are earthern in some form, DeAngelo said.

"Dirt absorbs bullets very well," DeAngelo said. "Harder material will cause ricochet. You want something cheap and relatively absorbent.

The site must be graded and concrete side baffle systems installed to prevent bullets from escaping from the side when officers are shooting and to reduce noise, he said.

"That's the problem with Tidd," DeAngelo said. "He makes noises like he was once a shooter or that he might be a shooter and understands how they work."

A police firing range is much more dynamic than a gun club or the ranges at Fort Dix, DeAngelo said.

"You have the officers moving, simulating the real use of firearms," he said.

But Tidd contends that it's still too much money, because the township already owns the land.

"We are questioning the expense," Tidd said. "I have commercial property. Three years ago, I did a 10-space parking lot with concrete curbing, engineering, drainage, blacktop. We're talking about 60 grand. For them to justify $1.2 million, it's just not there."

Tidd said he has been shooting as a hobby for 30 years.

"There is no justification for these costs," he said.

Tidd and Geoffrey Champion, his running mate, will face incumbent Democrats H. James Polos and John Pulomena in the November election for the two seats up on the freeholder board.