Controversial VY Shooting Range in Hinsdale, NH and Leyden, Ma

Yep, I watched them bulldozing for the last two months. Noticed them building up the berms for the second time. It is a half ass shooting range. Last snow storm, I parked next to the sewage plant. I go out most snow storms and hike along woods behind the range for hours on end. A big old blizzard is even better. I love being out in any storm. The police and snow plows get irked with me parking on the roads during snow storms. I didn't want to park my car near the gun range gate cause my car might get stuck in the snow. So I am on River Road on the way back, been out for about six hours on the most beautiful snow storm you can ever image. I am exhausted and cold, it was a spectacular day. Up ahead is a police car coming towards me. The chief had seen me shoveling out by the side of a road in another wooded area in the morning. I see its the chief, it is the second time. I thinking man, the police department must be really short of the officers for him to be out so long. The Chief is a really dedicated person to his difficult job. About nine months prior to this, I complained to the selectman about this police department. Heroin is decimating the police department and they are severely undermanned. The chief explained in heavy snow my car is parked near the sewage plant, he asked me want I am doing out here. I told him I am walking the woods behind the old dump. He explained I am making it difficult for the plows to clear road. Because there were issues with me complaining about the police department, I didn't want to get in a argument with the chief. I said as little as I could.

Proposal to expand Hinsdale shooting range draws backlash

By Ethan DeWitt Sentinel Staff

HINSDALE — The opposition was relentless, the criticisms rapid-fire.

A proposal to renovate the Hinsdale Police Department shooting range and extend its use to employees of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant drew a strong backlash at a board of selectman hearing Monday night, as residents raised concerns with noise levels and safety.

The proposal, advanced by Police Chief Todd Faulkner, would amend the town’s shooting range ordinance to expand the use of the range to security personnel from the nuclear power plant, as well as officers from Cheshire County police departments...

Anyway, I use the trail from the dump gate, through the gun range, up behind the gun range, to the dam area, all the time. The path is completely cut off by the new berms. They took no consideration making a new trail bypassing safely the shooting range.

I never got charge with anything on the link below. The agents said in a deep elevated voice, to never say them three bad words again in the same paragraph. This was pre Snowden. I think the FBI, CIA or NSA through domestic surveillance, picked up my three bad words. Told the FBI to take a peek at me. I asked the agent they got this information, the told me they couldn't say for national security reasons. I am glade are agencies are paying so much attention to terrorism issues.        

VY: FBI/Joint Terrorism Task Force investigating VY incident (Nov 2013)

The last time I got involved with protesting Vermont Yankee's new shooting range in Leyden Ma, two FBI agents assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force demanded they talk to me "before the end of daylight today".They thought I was making terrorism threats to VY. Remember, very few of the plant operations staff is left at the plant now.

The similarities with the Leyden and Hinsdale shooting range is the police force and Vermont Yankee are bullies. They wasn't proper notification. None of these dummies could imagine the amount of semi and automatic gun fire could effect the local population.  

Leyden rifle range run-in results in broken foot

Posted Wednesday, October 14, 2009 10:14 pm

By BOB AUDETTE

BRATTLEBORO -- A man who lives next door to the rifle range where Vermont Yankee security officers train sustained a fracture of a bone in his foot after it was run over by a vehicle driven by one of those guards.
"It hurts," said Matthew Cormier, 22, who said his 3-month-old child was awakened by a blaring truck horn as a vehicle was leaving the Leyden Rifle Range on River Road in Leyden, Mass., on Tuesday night.
He ran out of the house to ask the drivers not to blow their horns, he said.
The first vehicle that passed him almost hit him, said Cormier, so he tried to get the second vehicle to stop, which did not.
The third vehicle that went by was so close to the edge of the road that it ran over his foot, fracturing a bone.
"He didn’t even make an attempt to slow down," said Cormier. "He just kept on going."
Cormier denied he had thrown himself on the vehicle or made any physical move to block the road.
"If I had run out in front of him, I would probably be dead," he said.
He also denied that he damaged any vehicle during the altercation, which he was accused of by the security officers.
"How am I going to damage the vehicle when he is running me over?" asked Cormier, who called 911 after being struck by the vehicle.
Cormier said he plans to talk with a lawyer to figure out how to proceed, whether it’s just against the driver or against the driver and Vermont Yankee.
Leyden Police Chief Daniel Galvis said the incident is still under investigation.
Neighbors had called police to complain about the noise coming from the rifle range, which didn’t end until about 8 p.m., said Cecilia Tusinski, 64.
Tusinski and her husband Peter went outside to yell at and wave signs at the security guards as they drove by.
"We were highly incensed by the level of the noise," she said. "We went out specifically to voice our displeasure at the racket they were making. I yelled go home and don’t come back. We’re sick of you and have had enough."
The incident quickly escalated into a shouting match after one of the drivers stopped and threw his door open, she said.
"It was a heated exchange," said Tusinski.
She said some not very polite words were traded back and forth.
"I was yelling quite loudly and not in a very ladylike fashion," she said.
The driver not only swore at her and her husband, she said, but passengers in the next vehicle swore at them and gestured with their middle fingers. Her husband Peter said they also called them "crybabies."
"I then responded with some expletives," he admitted, adding "I believe we did nothing wrong. We expressed our displeasure through yelling and holding up a sign."
The sign read "Respect Leyden Taxpayers, No Shooting After 6 p.m."
"This is an intolerable situation," he said.
Though Cormier called 911 after being struck, police did not arrive until after they received a phone call that he had damaged one of the vehicles. When they did arrive, they were quick with their questions, asking if anyone was blocking the road or if anyone had threatened to go into their house and bring out a gun.
"It was nonsense," said Cecilia Tusinski.
"This is absurd that the state police were giving us the third degree," said her husband. "They’re more concerned about protecting VY’s goon squad than the citizens who pay taxes."
What was even worse, said Peter Tusinski, was the fact that none of the officers offered to help Cormier.
"Why in the hell would you send three state troopers and two local officers and not render assistance?" he asked.
The Tusinskis said they want Vermont Yankee to respect their neighborhood.
As taxpayers in Leyden, said Cecilia Tusinski, "We feel that our right to a peaceful night is being taken away by this escalation in the training of Vermont Yankee security forces."
Noise at the rifle range has gotten worse recently, she said, and Tuesday night’s racket was especially disturbing. She said that might be due to several factors, including it was a clear night, leaves have fallen off the trees, buildings at the rifle range were recently demolished and logging has taken some trees down.
But either way, said Peter Tusinski, having a large number of people firing at once creates quite a racket.
"The noise and disruption at night appears to have escalated," he said. "It’s getting everyone upset."
Another problem is that Yankee issued a schedule of when training was to be conducted, but hasn’t been sticking to the schedule, they both said.
Plant officials are attempting to make sure the schedules set are adhered to by their security forces, said Larry Smith, director of communications, which is a challenge, he admitted.
Smith also confirmed that Yankee had made a request of local police.
"We have requested a police escort," he said.
Sue Sojka, a registered nurse who drove Cormier to the hospital, said there is one solution that can make the problem go away.
"Get your butts home with your family and let us have some peace and quiet," she said.