The Ceres City Council spent some time at last week’s meeting discussing the proposal to increase the rent charged to other police agencies to use the police shooting range.

The Ceres range is used by seven law enforcement organizations – including the CHP and DA’s office – and two private companies which has produced over $120,000 in revenue.

City staff asked the council to consider that such funds to be spent on regular operations and maintenance in addition to future improvements.

Protesting the action was Ceres resident John Warren, who was a range officer when he worked for the California Highway Patrol. He said funding to improve range facilities is hard to get and that in all his years of attending council meetings, he never heard any request for improvements to the Ceres range “and I do know personally that improvements are needed out there.”

He said maintenance of the range is part of the budget for maintenance of all city facilities and that rental fees should be reserved for future improvements like classrooms and permanent bathroom facilities to “make the range a better place for training.”

He added, “please, do not rob this fund for maintenance items – allow it to be used for what it is intended and that is to improve the range facilities.”

The council, however, voted 3-2 to approve the request with Rosalinda Vierra, Bret Silveira and Daniel Martinez outvoting James Casey and Mayor Javier Lopez.