Photos by Colleen Reynolds Wood-Ridge Lt. Angelo Paiotti takes aim at a target. Many local police officers practice their shooting at the pistol range in Wood-Ridge under a shared-services agreement. Lead and brass shells are sorted into drums for recycling after use.

By Colleen Reynolds / Reporter

WOOD-RIDGE (Dec. 10, 2009, 10:35 a.m.) — An antiquated pistol range at the end of a nondescript cul-de-sac in the industrial district of Wood-Ridge serves as a mecca for South Bergen police officers. Used for firearms training, practice and qualification, the facility is hailed by police for its convenient location and round-the-clock availability. It is also an example of local municipalities sharing services, a common practice in today’s cost-cutting times.

But with a new year looming, the Wood-Ridge Police Pistol Range faces an uncertain future.

A dilapidated structure and possible environmental contamination are two concerns. Another is a lack of definitive commitment by two parties that utilize the range.

Rutherford and Carlstadt, while trying to decide whether to accept the latest agreement to use the range, in effect Jan. 1, 2009, through Dec. 31, 2010, have continued to shoot at the range for nearly a full year without paying the established annual fee of $125 per employee on the police roster. The deadline for payment, which helps cover the cost of operation, ammunition and maintenance, is May 1 of each year of the contract. Both municipalities are several months past due.

According to Wood-Ridge officials, the other participants in the agreement — East Rutherford, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Moonachie, Little Ferry and Weehawken — have all signed the agreement and paid their respective fee.

All participants were granted use of the facility under the expectation that they would comply with the new agreement. Rutherford and Carlstadt may be granted leniency for 2009, but if they don’t reach a decision soon, their police departments may lose access.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” said Rutherford Councilman John Genovesi, liaison to the police department. Although using the Wood-Ridge range means officers do not have to incur overtime costs to travel to the county range in Mahwah, the Wood-Ridge facility is outmoded, contaminated with lead (from the fired rounds) and the latest fee is a significant increase over the previous lump sum, he said. Rutherford has still not decided what would provide the “best overall value to the community,” Genovesi added, but he hopes that its officers will not be cut off from the range before the borough finalizes its decision.

One day after Genovesi’s interview, Rutherford Borough Administrator Leslie Shenkler told The Leader that discussion of the pistol range was to be part of the agenda for the Tuesday, Dec. 8 meeting of the mayor and council.

Carlstadt Councilman Craig Lahullier, police liaison, noted, “We don’t want to jump into anything head first,” adding that his borough wants to thoroughly examine all the legal ramifications of the switch from the former cooperative agreement, in which all members carried roughly equal weight, to the new shared-services arrangement, whereby Wood-Ridge would effectively control the range. “That’s why we’re scratching our heads.”

When asked, though, he said Carlstadt probably would end up agreeing to the new terms.

Carlstadt Borough Administrator Jane Fontana and Chief Financial Officer Domenick Giancaspro did not return phone calls.

Originally built with grant money in the 1990s, the range operated under a cooperative agreement with Wood-Ridge, Moonachie, Carlstadt, East Rutherford and Rutherford as charter members, to be joined later by the Federal Reserve, Little Ferry and Weehawken. When the initial agreement expired at the end of 2006, the range operated under the same terms as the original contract from 2007 to 2008. Then, declaring the cooperative agreement had ended, Wood-Ridge established a new shared-services agreement, in which it would serve in a “landlord-like” role.

One reason for this new arrangement — as well as the lack of long-term plans or significant upgrades other than those needed to keep the range functional — explained Wood-Ridge Borough Administrator Chris Eilert, involves possible contamination from the adjacent Department of Public Works property. The state Department of Environmental Protection has alerted Wood-Ridge of contamination from an old gasoline tank at that site. If test results indicate the contamination has seeped under the pistol range, the facility would be required to close.

Meanwhile, local police departments continue to visit the range to hone their pistol, rifle and shotgun skills for their fall and spring qualifications, firing rounds from various distances at cardboard-backed paper targets or dummies placed in front of a black rubber backstop. Lieutenant Angelo Paiotti, the Wood-Ridge range master, explained that the backstop requires cleaning after approximately 60,000 rounds. The lead shells are placed in drums to be recycled and the rubber is replaced. Otherwise, bullets may ricochet. He estimated that a year’s worth of maintenance costs upward of $20,000 to $25,000.

No weapons are stored at the roofless, concrete-walled enclosure. Animals are said to scurry through the run-down range house, where insulation hangs haphazardly from missing panels in the dropped ceiling like grungy Christmas decorations. Police officers would like to see the room renovated into a nice classroom.

The outside lights do not work, according to Paiotti, and the stands holding the targets are so old that new parts cannot be ordered for them. More modern ones can swivel sideways for timed shooting practice.

Despite the rudimentary accoutrement, though, Paiotti explained that officers can run simulated shoot-outs and valuable training in which vehicles can be brought into the facility, which would be impossible in Mahwah or at the indoor range in Paramus. In addition, the entire department does not have to arrange a time to go to the county range together.

Whether keeping the range open and updated is a shot in the dark has yet to be determined.

“A pistol range is not the best use for any town,” Wood-Ridge Mayor Paul Sarlo said at an executive council meeting, Tuesday, Dec. 1. In the beginning of the new year, he said, the borough would need to determine a future contract for the range or “close the whole thing and we all go on our own merry way to Mahwah.”