LAKE COUNTY, Ohio — A group of Lake County neighbors is taking a nearby country club to court over noise from its annual skeet shooting program.
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The Kirtland Country Club allows its members to take part in the sport for 10 hours on weekends after the golf season ends.
“I’ve been enduring this nuisance of gunfire from the Kirtland Country Club for several years now,” said one neighbor in a video of testimonials a law firm intended to show the impact of the shooting noise.
Some of the people raising concerns include parents of special needs children with sensory issues and veterans with PTSD.
“I have flashbacks of being in a firefight when I hear the gunshots,” one man said.
News 5 has previously covered the frustrations voiced by neighbors. In 2021, a group protested outside of the club’s gates.
RELATED: Lake County residents, veterans fed up with skeet shooting noises at Kirtland Country Club
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“Every time I hear the guns, I go back to the Cold War,” neighbor and Navy veteran Bill Gray told News 5 in 2021. “My dad's a Navy vet. He was in the fire control with guns, and it shakes him up. It sends him right back to the Korean War.”
At that time, the country club told News 5 that the skeet shooting program was properly permitted and legally compliant.
The city of Willoughby, in which the club is technically located, granted a permit for the program in 2015. The city then revoked the authorization after noise complaints, but the club fought back and won in court.
This week, a group is bringing the matter back to court.
“Virtually hundreds of residents heard about this, and they started calling me and telling me unbelievably gruesome stories about how this has devastated their life,” said attorney Tim Misny.
Misny is representing at least 475 households in a class action lawsuit over the matter. He said he expects the number to exceed 500 as word gets out about the lawsuit.
“Today, I got an email from a gentleman. And he said, ‘I live four miles away from the Club, and I can hear the shooting as clear as a bell,’” Misny said.
He said his team has found decibel readings at some of the affected homes register the noise as loud as a powerful firecracker.
Ohio law allows outdoor shooting ranges as long as the average noise does not exceed 90 decibels. Misny feels his case may succeed where others have not because he said a recent case created a new precedent when a judge ruled that 90 decibels is virtually unattainable by normal gunfire.
“The shooting ranges have no immunity because you could never satisfy the requirement, i.e., you could never exceed 90 [decibels], so the law means nothing,” he said.
The Kirtland Country Club did not respond to several requests for comment Friday. The leadership there previously provided News 5 with a statement. In part, it said, “The courts have consistently ruled in the Club’s favor. Throughout the years, we have taken additional proactive measures to mitigate further disturbances the skeet program may have to the surrounding community.”
The lawsuit is asking for an end to the skeet shooting program and for years of damages for the families affected by the noise. Currently, the program is scheduled to start again on Saturday.
