Two years ago the Lafayette County Planning Commission approved a preliminary site plan for a $1.8 million shooting range that would have been built by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks, not far from the F.D. “Buddy” East Training Complex off County Road 309.

However, since then, no final plat has been submitted, no building permits have been applied for and no dirt has been turned over.

The preliminary plans called for a shooting range on 300 acres with classrooms, skeet shooting, pistol ranges, rifle ranges, five-stand and an archery range.

But according to Lacey Khun, spokesperson for MDWFP, when contacted last week said the department hasn’t selected a site for its new range yet.

“While Lafayette County has been considered in our site selection process, we have not yet selected a location for our next shooting range,” Khun said in an email response.

No other information was provided as to why a site plan was formally submitted two years ago while the department now says no site has been selected.

“A site has not been selected,” was Khun’s second response to questions from the EAGLE.

Lafayette County Board of Supervisor president Jeff Busby said he hasn’t heard anything from the state in regards to the shooting range since the state presented the preliminary plat to the commission, which was approved.

The range would have been funded through a federal grant.

A similar range was opened in Perkinston just outside of Hattiesburg in May 2014.