By Mark Buchanan
Clay County Sheriff
Under former Clay County Sheriff Bobby Deese’s administration, land was secured across Hinton Center Road from the Clay County Transfer Station to be used as a firing range for officers to meet their qualification requirements. A temporary firing range on private property had been in use across US Hwy 64 from Southern Auctions & Outdoors in Hayesville but it was no longer available. The sheriff’s office is grateful to Clay County Manager Debbie Mauney and the county commissioners for seeing this need and making the property available. During former Sheriff Deese’s administration and throughout 2023, extensive work was done at this new location making it suitable for safely conducting firearms qualifications.
The vast majority of the material and labor used to complete this range was donated by Clay County businesses and Clay County inmate work crews. The sheriff’s office is beyond grateful to the area businesses that made this firing range possible. Some of these donations consisted of: extensive dozer/excavator work by Billy Garrett Construction, hydro-seeding by Blankenship Seeding Company, dozer work and stone by the N.C. Department of Transportation, heavy cable for the target mounting system from George’s Hardware, materials from individual officers and hardware items from Mountain Builders Supply.