Resident says bullets entered barn; city staff say range now limited to police use

Steve Nies, a Napoleon resident, told the Napoleon City Council during the citizen‑communication portion that bullets from the city shooting range pierced his barn and narrowly missed family members during an incident on April 29, 2023.

Nies said he has provided the council copies of Department of Energy range design guidance and argued the city range does not meet several safety standards in that document. “A 9 millimeter bullet goes over a mile,” Nies told the council. He said State Route 24, houses and an elementary school lie within what he described as the range’s surface‑danger zone and that signs and other controls required by the DOE guidance were not in place.

City staff responded that the Department of Energy guidance Nies provided applies to DOE ranges and is not mandatory for municipal ranges. “The very first sentence in that Department of Energy range criteria states that it’s for Department of Energy ranges. We are not required to have a Department of Energy range,” said Andy Small, a city staff member. Small said the city closed the range immediately after the 2023 incident, reviewed options with police staff and later reconfigured the facility to reduce risk by rotating the firing direction 90 degrees.

Small told the council that the city now shoots to the south and that the range is currently used only by the Napoleon Police Department and visiting sheriff’s deputies. “We no longer — the event that occurred two years ago was from the academy at Northwest State that was utilizing the range that afternoon. And ever since then when we opened it, it is now only being utilized by our police department and, I believe, the Sheriff, officers go out there, deputies go out there as well,” Small said.

Nies asked the council what had been done to make the range safer; staff said they had discussed solutions with the city manager and the police chief and would take the resident’s concerns into consideration. Council did not direct further study or take formal action on the range during the meeting.

The exchange took place during the citizen‑communication agenda item; no ordinance, contract or formal directive regarding the range was introduced or voted on that evening.

Ending

Council members thanked Nies for bringing the concern to the public record and moved on to the next agenda item. No vote or directive resulting in new requirements for the shooting range was recorded in the meeting minutes.