A Town Council workshop on the question of target shooting in the Musquash conservation area will be held Oct. 7.
At the beginning of summer, Town Council Chairman Tom Dolan said a discussion on the issue should be held after people return from vacation so that more people could participate in the discussion.
Several incidents prompted the discussion, which centers on the safety of trail users.
In February 2013, Musquash Field Day was marred with the discovery of five holes blasted through the sign at the Hickory Lane welcome kiosk. Bob Saur of Londonderry Trailways said, “Somebody took a shotgun to the kiosk within the last week and it’s something I’m not too happy about, so I’ll be going to the police station to file a report. They shot five holes into the kiosk and the back is blown out in those five places.”
He said five shells were collected, one of them still live.
One of the shells had been jammed into the hole left by the shotgun blast.
At a Conservation Commission meeting in July of 2013, member Mike Considine said he lives near enough to the Musquash to hear target shooters and can differentiate between the Musquash and the Londonderry Rod and Gun Club shooting facility.
He noted one group that was shooting “fairly high caliber rounds into a hill (from the main trailhead). “There’s a trail right on top, and I’m not talking the power line, I’m talking the main trail, the Landing Trail that runs into the area where we have our cookout,” he said at the time. “They’re shooting there into the hill where another trail comes down.”
“It’s an issue and I think we owe it to the people who want to use those trails safely to sort it out the best we can,” Conservation Commission Chairman Deb Lievens said at the time.