Mission shooting range to expand

The City of Mission signed a lease last month to expand a shooting range on a section of public land near Conway Avenue and Expressway 83.

But a group of cyclists and hikers says it has already laid claim to the 112 acres of the Mission Nature Park and doesn’t want to give it up. The group says it has developed six miles worth of dirt-bike trails with the approval of the city’s Parks and Recreation board since 2008.

Under the Aug. 9 contract, the Mission Skeet and Trap Club will provide materials for the city to build a fence around the shooting range in November and will pay only $1 a year for the 25-year lease.

Mission City Manager Julio Cerda said the land is owned by the city but is not official park land. He also said the city did not know of the existence of the trails and that the cyclists should not have built the trails in the first place.

Michael Uhrbrock, president of the Mission Trails Club, said officials within City Hall knew what his club was doing ever since Parks and Recreation approved the trails, which were built at the club’s expense.

“We went back and forth, back and forth until they approved it unanimously,” Uhrbrock said. “But we did not sign the memorandum of understanding (they had prepared) because the city attorney said it was not necessary.”

The city’s own website features the bike trail, mentioning five miles of paved trail and six miles of “singletrack that is scattered throughout the surrounding park that was developed for mountain bikers and trail runners who want to test their dirt skills.”

The trails club says it provides residents with an outdoors activity not found anywhere close to Mission, but the shooting club says it is doing the same.

“We want to put in sporting clays, archery course,” said Steven Shultz, director of the shooting club. “There is nothing available like that south of San Antonio.”

Brownsville has similar trails but they are not as advanced.

The Skeet and Trap Club are a non-profit group with no funds of its own, so, its plans are contingent on getting a grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

According to the contract, the leased tract will be used for the installation, maintenance and operations of pistol, archery, sporting clay, skeet and trap ranges for the recreation and enjoyment of the club members and its guests.

“We presented our proposal to the city commission, they voted on it, their attorneys drew up the lease basically and put the provisions in it and we signed,” Shultz said. “I don’t see what the problem is.

“It’s not that they built roads with asphalt and cement,” he added. “There is just a pass the width of a bicycle, basically where they’ve been riding. I didn’t even know they had signs up there.”

The cyclists plan to attend the next city council meeting at 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 13 and have a rally at 9 a.m. on Saturday at the trails.

In the past, the two clubs have both used public land. However, the new contract would expand the shooting club’s current 38 acres to the full 112 acres. The club and city plan on erecting a King Ranch-type fence to restrict access to all shooting areas.

“For the 25 years we’ve been there, we’ve always had plans for that little property right there,” Shultz said. “We didn’t take all their property, there’s plenty on the top, and the City of Mission is going to let them use all that stuff behind the water plant.

“We’ve even cut it short on one corner so they would have plenty of room to access it and we could all co-exist peacefully,” Shultz said.

But the cyclists said they will hold onto the trails they have developed for over two years.

“We decided we are going to fight this because we’ve put a lot of time and effort to this trails that we are not only giving them away,” Uhrbrock said.

Cyclist Glen Romero will serve as the attorney representing the trails group with Mark Montalvo, a McAllen attorney and fellow cyclist.

“What happens here is that you have a special interest group that has gotten 112 acres for $1 dollar to the exclusion of all the other citizens in Mission, and that’s not right” Romero said.

He takes issue with the City of Mission denying a public hearing request from the trails club. After the City Council discussed the lease in a closed door executive session, they unanimously approved it after reconvening in front of the public.

“My question to them was simply: how was the lease obtained?” Romero said. “Did you give (the shooting club) a three-minute statement, then on that three-minute statement decide to give them a lease?

“How is it that the president who is a citizen of McAllen of this Mission gun club was able to get a lease without anybody knowing about it?” he asked.

McAllen resident James Biddle, president of the board of directors for the shooting club, did not return repeated calls for comment.

Though the future of the trails remains uncertain, a number of cyclists expressed pride and attachment to them and had hoped to host state races in the near future.

“Those trails are manicured, cut the edges, so we can enjoy them,” said Oscar Tijerina, a member of the Mission Trail Club.

Nat Flores, a cyclist from Brownsville, said he likes to ride in Mission’s trails.

“This is a quality of life issue, the City of Mission is taking a step back,” said Flores, an Emergency Management Administrative Assistant for Cameron County.. “As we all know and we see in the reports…over 60 per cent of Americans are overweight or obese.

“Here is an opportunity for Mission to make a difference by simply letting the trail be a trail,” he said.

The approved lease includes the trails Easy Rider, Jackhammer, Psychopath, and La Quebradita, all named by the cyclists based in its degree of difficulty.

Jesus Mendiola, owner of Bike Masters, said a lot of families use the trails on weekends and on weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m. and in the evenings around 6 p.m.

“I ride with my daughter all the time,” Mendiola said. “The reason that I open my business in Mission is because I saw the need. That is the reason of my business.”