PORT TOWNSEND — A Discovery Bay-area resident who was a prime opponent of shooting range noise at Gardiner-based Security Services Northwest wants to mediate an agreement between the company’s president and Jefferson County.
Sam Parker on Monday said he proposes an agreement that would relocate Joe D’Amico’s Security Services Northwest shooting ranges into the wooded Olympic foothills above the company’s existing ranges, near the western shores of Discovery Bay at Fort Discovery.
Noise abatement devices could also be part of the plan, said Parker.
“My attitude is I’m not here to like Joe D’Amico or dislike him. I want the best for me and that is for the noise to go away,” Parker, a former member of the citizens’ group, Discovery Bay Alliance, said Monday.
In a Dec. 12 e-mail message to county Commissioner David Sullivan, Parker states:
“This ugly dispute has taken on a character quite different from what was originally intended by the complaining citizens.
“From the beginning, we have been concerned only with the offensive noise of firearms and explosive devices emanating from SSNW [Security Systems Northwest].
“We have never been concerned with building permits or questioned the legitimate right of SSNW to operation a security business.”
Homeland security
Discovery Bay Alliance was formed to oppose noise from D’Amico’s operations, which more than a year ago offered homeland security-related training to the Navy and others with the Department of Defense.
Much of that training involved training with assault weapons.
The county shut down all weapons training at Fort Discovery during the summer of 2005 when county building officials issued a stop-work order against D’Amico.
Several buildings were found on the Fort Discovery site and D’Amico later admitted before county Hearing Examiner Irv Berteig that the structures were mistakenly constructed without building permits.
Rather than costly continued legal actions between D’Amico’s lawyers and the county’s attorneys, Parker calls for an agreement that “would achieve a win for both sides and finally put an end to what has become a highly divisive and costly stalemate.