Near the end of the Monday, March 25, Township Council meeting, several East Hanover residents complained to the Council about the Livingston Police Firing Range, which is located in close proximity to them.
That shooting range is used by police officers to train and is located off Eisenhower Parkway behind Lithos Estiatorio restaurant, bordering the Passaic River. The range has been in use for more than seven decades. Town records show that the deed to the parcel - Lot 20, Block 68 - was given to the town in 1961 for the express purpose of use as a pistol range. Purchase of the land, which had previously been the site of the Knotty Pine Bar, was authorized by Ordinance No. 31-1961.
Township manager Barry Lewis said it has been used as a shooting range consistently since the sale, with the current structure erected in the 1980s. Police officers in Livingston and nearby towns use the range to complete required firearms training.
Complaints about the range appear to have ramped up recently, afterNew Jersey State Police (NJSP) officers were permitted to use it for training, causing an influx of hundreds of additional people firing weapons, including automatic rifles. Lewis said that this was “a mistake that would be coming to an end.”
In all, 71 Livingston officers receive firearm training twice a year at the range, about three hours and 200 rounds each time. There are additional training requirements for rifles, which require four training sessions per year. Neighboring West Essex police departments also use the range to fulfill their similar requirements. Once the NJSP was welcomed in, however, hundreds of troopers were added to that list, with East Hanover residents saying it sounded like they were under constant fire in their own backyards.
Livingston officials noted that the agreement withNJSP coincided with the influx of complaints. Deputy Mayor Ed Meinhardt, for instance, said on Monday that in his 11 years on the Council, this was the first time he had heard a complaint about the gun range. For that reason, he is optimistic that telling the NJSP they can no longer use the range will take care of the extra noise, and that the range will then be able to operate as it has for decades.
“I don’t think people fully appreciated how many State Police officers were going to come and train,” Lewis said. “Somewhere along the way, someone should have pinned down the details.”
Residents Want More
East Hanover residents, however, want more. At Monday’s Council meeting, the residents, many of whom live on Fox Run Drive, the closest residential street to the range, spoke of continued pollution (from the lead in the bullets seeping into the ground) andnoise concerns. They requested that the range be closed permanently to all officers, relocated, or be enclosed for further safety and sound protection.
“It’s like a war zone,” Fox Run Drive resident Don Adams said.
“My walls shake... you wouldn’t want this outside your front door,” said Cheryl Waldrum, a Fox Run Drive resident who works from home and says she cannot go on conference calls due to the noise. “It’s 2024. Why are we shooting police guns within a close proximity to any hood… It is loud, it’s disturbing, and it’s not something a two year old should [experience].”
Also among the speakers was Natalee Bartlett, superintendent of schools in East Hanover who lives on Fox Run Drive.
“Shame on all of you,” Bartlett said. “I have never been so disappointed in a Council or a mayor.”
Bartlett said the shooting has been occurring at “ungodly hours” of late. She contended that residents with cancer cannot rest, children cannot sleep, and animals are traumatized due to the activity at the range.
“It’s Livingston’s problem,” Bartlett said. “Shame on you. Shame on you, Livingston.”
Bartlett stated that the East Hanover officials successfully got the NJSP to stop using the range.
Police Chief Responds
Livingston Chief of Police Gary Marshuetz – who was out of state during Monday’s meeting and was unaware that the residents would be there to speak on the matter – later told the Tribune that it was, in fact, the Livingston Police Department that told NJSP they could no longer use the facility.
“They are under the impression that they got the State Police out of there,” Chief Marshuetz said. “I am under the impression that we made another concession and asked them not to come back.”
Mayor Al Anthony also noted that he and other Livingston officials worked to end NJSP’s use of the range.
Chief Marshuetz said this was one of several concessions that the department has made in recent years. Others include increasing the buffering and height of the berms around the range; not shooting in the winter due to lack of natural buffering with the leaves on trees (typically between November 1 and March 1); and limiting hours of use at the range. Previously, the range was open at all times, “24/7/365,” but it is now open from 9 a.m to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. It is closed on weekends and holidays, in addition to the winter.
“These are concessions that are a big strain on us, but we are trying to work with the residents,” Chief Marshuetz said. “We will continue to work to mitigate the problem so that we can accomplish our mission while working with the neighboring community.”
The Chief said that he has been working with East Hanover officials over the past few years to alleviate these concerns while still keeping the range functional for the department, so he was disappointed to learn what was said at Monday’s meeting.
“We met with East Hanover’s mayor, police chief, a Council member, and a resident just two weeks ago,” he said. “I was under the impression that we were working together as a team.”
Chief Marshuetz believes that, in addition to the issue of hundreds of State Police officers using the range, which has been resolved, people are now working from home more frequently, which is leading to more complaints.
“These houses used to be empty during the day,” Chief Marshuetz said. “There are also new homeowners coming into the area, who were unaware of the range.”
Additionally, he noted that much of the natural buffering on East Hanover’s side of the Passaic River has disappeared in recent years, due to development and the periodical flooding of the river. This causes more sound from the range to reach the homes.
Lewis noted that having a range in town is “invaluable” to officers, but that “everything is on the table” in regard to improving the issue, including changing the location, sound proofing the range, or converting it to become an enclosed range. Adding a roof or enclosure would be expensive, and complicated due to an easement the utility companies have in the location, but town officials said they intended to look into its feasibility.
“Obviously, we are willing to explore that. We thought we had a good rapport until [Monday’s meeting],” Chief Marshuetz said. “We have been working with East Hanover on this. We have met with [East Hanover Police Chief Christopher Cannizzo] and with residents. No matter what concessions we make, though, it’s never enough.”
Chief Marshuetz noted that LPD has a great working relationship with the East Hanover Police Department and Chief Cannizzo and that EHPD officers are still welcome to use the range, though they have not done so in recent years.
“The fact is that we have to comply with policies established by the attorney general. Each officer has a bi-annual requirement to train with their firearm, plus every other weapon they carry. A rifle, for example, requires training four times a year,” Chief Marshuetz said. “For all that training, this range is an essential asset for us. We need our officers to be trained and prepared for anything that may happen. Unfortunately, we have to match whatever firepower is out there in the world.”
Chief Marshuetz noted that Livingston and the surrounding area has many “soft targets,” places like schools and houses of worship that they must be prepared to protect in the event of an attack. Having the range in town keeps those places safer by keeping the officers in town and onduty while they train, he said.
“If a major incident happens, we rely on other law enforcement agencies for mutual aid,” Chief Marshuetz said. “It is in our best interests to have our contiguous towns prepared. Which is why we let Millburn, West Orange, and others use the range. We are interested in helping out these towns because we need them if a mass incident happens to one of our soft targets.”
While the department hopes to resolve the issue for all who are concerned, Chief Marshuetz said it was “absolutely false” that it is easy to find another location for the department to train.
“Every police agency is struggling to find places to qualify, especially with rifles,” he said. “There are not a lot of facilities to train and there are scheduling issues. Logistically, it doesn’t make sense to relocate with the frequency that we need to train.”
Chief Marshuetz also conceded that he does not believe there are many more concessions to be made. Short of constructing an expensive enclosure, he said the best way to improve the sound would be to add buffering on the East Hanover side of the Passaic River in the form of replacing the trees that have died or been removed in recent years.
