By Michael Copley
Staff Writer

The FBI has backed out of a loose agreement to fund the bulk of a state police shooting range planned for Powhatan County.

According to an email dated July 28 from the FBI to the Department of Justice, “The FBI is terminating its involvement with the development of a firearms range in the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries property in Powhatan, Va.”

Dennette Rybiski, media coordinator for the FBI, would say only that the project was “not a feasible option.”

“That’s all we’re going to say,” she said.

An email from the state’s Department of Historic Resources to the Department of Environmental Quality says the catalyst for the withdrawal was learning that the project was subject to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

That section requires federal agencies to consider the effects of federally funded projects on significant historic properties.

According to a state capital outlay document, the FBI was slated to contribute $1.3 million of the total $1.9 million in project costs. The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries would contribute $400,000 and the state police would contribute $300,000 in the form of federal asset forfeiture funds.

But a letter dated July 12 from FBI Assistant Director of Training Janet L. Kamerman stated, “No contract has been signed by the FBI, nor has funding been identified.”

“We in Powhatan have not received official word from the Virginia State Police…about the FBI’s termination of involvement or about [the state police’s] intentions as a result of the FBI’s withdrawal,” said Supervisor Carson Tucker. 

“We are indeed optimistic, however, that the FBI’s apparent decision, after due deliberation, will convince our own State Police that this is the wrong location for such a facility.”

State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said today that the state police still have not received formal notification of the FBI’s decision.

According to a report by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Governor Bob McDonnell said this morning that he has directed his secretary of public safety and the superintendent of state police to look at all options for the project.

“I do think there’s a need for good partnership between a state and local government so that it’s not a heavy-handed state Capitol from Richmond forcing things on localities,” McDonnell said. “Certainly something I don’t appreciate when we get that from Washington I can tell you.”

“We ought to have a way to listen to their voice,” he said. “We are sensitive to that and there’s some dialogue going on now to look at what the options are.”

In an email sent July 28 to County Administrator Carolyn Bishop, Julia Wellman, an environmental impact review coordinator for the DEQ, stated that her department’s review is still “ongoing.”

Even without an official word from the state police, Tucker said, “We are very pleased to have been heard by the powers-that-be. It renews people’s faith to realize that if they get involved, do their own research, and articulate their ideas respectfully, then they can make a difference, even in situations where decisions seem ‘booked’ already.”

Brian Buniva, the lawyer hired by residents who live around the proposed 81-lane shooting range, said the citizens he’s worked with in Powhatan are “The most organized and impressive group,” he’s encountered.

“They came together for a common purpose,” he said.

Buniva said that in response to a Freedom of Information Act Request he filed with the FBI earlier this month, the bureau stated that it had no records related to the project.

“The response was pretty astonishing,” he said.

The shooting range project made its way into the state budget as a $1.9 million capital outlay amendment, but now, nobody can account for it.

“No one seems to know how [that] $2 million got in the budget,” said Supervisor Carson Tucker. “It blows my mind that our government doesn’t know how it got in the budget. There’s so much fuzz and nobody to turn to [for] definitive answers.”

Sen. John Watkins, who serves on the senate finance committee and the capital outlay subcommittee, said he “can’t get an answer on this” either.

Check Powhatantoday.com for updates

Wesley P. Hester and Olympia Meola contributed to this report.