Shooting buffer zone established near city

A buffer zone between the residential neighborhoods of Electric City and Osborne Bay, where the discharge of firearms will not be allowed, was made official at the June 11 Electric City city council meeting.

The 500-foot-wide, 7,281-foot-long buffer zone, required the cooperation of various entities to establish: the Bureau of Reclamation, the state’s departments of Natural Resources and Fish and Wildlife, Sunbanks Lake Resort, and the city of Electric City.

The zone is being established to create a safety zone for residents who don’t live far from Osborne Bay.

Councilmember Birdie Hensley doesn’t think any weapons should be discharged at all in the entire Osborne Bay area, which is technically in Electric City’s limits.

City Clerk Russ Powers explained that the state is in charge of the lands beyond the buffer zone.

“We can restrict [the discharge of firearms] in the buffer zone and within the limits of Electric City, but we can’t do it on state lands,” Powers explained, saying that Electric City can have the police enforce the laws within the buffer zone, and that Fish and Wildlife enforces the rest.

“You can hunt where you are allowed to according to the state,” Powers said.

Signs will be posted running the length of the buffer zone, with the ordinance for it posted on those signs. Additionally, Fish and Wildlife will install a kiosk at the entrance to Osborne Bay explaining the buffer zone.

The ordinance the council approved states that “discharge of any firearm or any other projectile such as a bow and arrow is prohibited within the 500-foot buffer area … and lands lying to the north of that defined area” and includes “within, from, along, across, or down roads or trails ... within 500 feet of residences, businesses, structures.”