By Abby Walton
For more than a year, Zionsville Town Council President Jeff Papa said there have been multiple complaints from people about the amount of gunfire that’s being heard in the rural district.
“People continue to comment about the gunfire in the area and how it’s noisy, scares livestock and could become a safety issue,” Papa said.
At a council meeting, held in early August, the issue of firearms in the rural district was brought up again, leading Papa and the council to talk about taking some sort of action.
“As the council, we decided to take this issue to our Safety Board and let them do some research,” Papa said.
The job of the Safety Board will be to review past complaints and get input from people about the issue. Papa said the board will then present its findings to the council. If the board recommends no action needs to be taken, then Papa said nothing will be done. However, if the board recommends something should be done, then Papa said the council would bring the issue back up during a full council meeting and discuss what steps need to be taken.
In Zionsville, Papa said there are two districts, urban and rural. The urban district is considered everything inside of Old Town Zionsville. The rural district is considered everything outside of that including the areas of Union and Neal which were incorporated into Zionsville a few years ago. Papa said inside the urban district, it is illegal for people to shoot any type of firearm. However, there’s no such ordinance for people living in the rural district. There, shooting a firearm is permitted as long as no one gets hurt and noise ordinances aren’t violated.
To gather more insight, the Safety Board will discuss this issue at its Aug. 26meeting. The board will meet at 9 a.m. in the big meeting room inside Town Hall at 1100 W. Oak St. in Zionsville. Papa said the council is encouraging the public to attend this meeting and make their opinions known to the safety board.
If unable to attend the meeting, Papa said the public could email a council member. Their email addresses can be found at www.zionsvile-in.gov. The findings from the Safety Board meeting will then be addressed at the next town council meeting in September.