City moves gas line in police dept.

A natural gas line will add an additional $3,500 to the construction costs for the police department’s indoor shooting range.

The line is just beyond the shooting range, between the firing line and the bullet trap of the range. If the gas line were to be struck by a bullet, the effects could be lethal and explosive.

The city has two options to deal with the problem: build armor around the gas line or relocate the line outside of the building. Relocating the line is the cheaper of the two options.

“My preference is, we don’t hit a gas line,” Green River Police Chief Chris Steffen said.

The city council approved the project and voted to reroute the line outside during Tuesday’s city council meeting. The project will also add two extra days to the shooting range construction timeline. The range will not be usable until completion of rerouting the gas line.

Councilman Ted Barney voiced a concern about the initial construction of the building.

“I’m just wondering if the original plans for the building called for this gas line to be on the inside or outside and if somebody took a shortcut when they were building,” he said.

Steffen said there were two options when the line was installed. The line could either be placed outside the building or inside the interior wall. Placing the line inside was the more esthetically pleasing option and what was opted for during construction. During initial construction of the building, the manufacturers were unaware a shooting range was going to be placed in that location. The location of the shooting range was decided later.

“Obviously, we want to do all we can to prevent a 2-inch gas line from being struck,” Steffen said.

Because of budgetary constraints, plans for the site and the shooting range were up in the air during the earlier planning periods of the building.

“We’re $3,500 away from finishing a project we all want to finish,” Councilman Brett Stokes said. “So, it’s a no brainer to me. If we need to move a gas line, let’s move a gas line.”

With the added project of rerouting the gas line to outside of the building, the finished shooting range’s substantial completion walkthrough is planned for May 26.