The Nashville Police Department has permission to build a shooting range at the town’s wastewater treatment plant, but they don’t have permission to use it just yet.

The town council approved Chief Ben Seastrom’s request to build the range with an offer of donated labor and materials. Before officers use it, the council wanted to check on what it might do to the town’s insurance rates.

The Brown County Sheriff’s Department has a shooting range on Lucas Hollow Road, near the Brown-Bartholomew county line. Officers from all agencies that operate in Brown County have been able to shoot there.

Town Attorney James T. Roberts asked if town officers could just use that range. Seastrom said county officers use it a lot, so it would be easier if town officers could have their own.

Seastrom said the plan is to build the range on the far west side of the treatment plant, which is on Treatment Plant Road along Salt Creek at the far west end of town. He said berms will be built up in an area where there’s already a steep hillside. “We’re in a safe location and far enough out that we’re not going to hurt anybody,” he said.

Roberts said the main concern would probably be noise. Seastrom said six or seven shoots would be planned around dusk to allow officers to practice in low light. Each would last about an hour or less, and he said he was willing to post a notice on the Nashville Police Department’s Facebook page to let neighbors know when those would be happening.

There was also some debate about whether or not the treatment plant is in town limits or not. Town ordinances prohibit discharging a firearm in Nashville, Roberts said. Seastrom thought there was a provision that exempted officers from that rule, but Roberts wasn’t able to find any such provision during the meeting.

Chief Administrator Phyllis Carr told them that according to her map, the treatment plant is out of town limits, so town laws wouldn’t have to be altered to allow a police shooting range.