T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM The Marshalltown City Council voted to lower the rent in a lease agreement with the Central Iowa River Gun Club during Monday night’s meeting. The club is located directly under the Center Street viaduct and is housed in a space that has no appeal to anyone other than “fire-breathing dragons,” according to Councilor Gary Thompson.

The Marshalltown City Council voted unanimously to lower the lease fee for the Central Iowa River Gun Club (CIRGC) on Monday night.

During the regular meeting, Club President Steve Gile said their goal is to provide the safest possible shooting facility. However, he told council members he believes they are being unfairly charged with the new lease proposal in what is considered a useless space.

“We have incurred major expenses over the years basically due to leaking expansion joints,” Gile said. “In other words, the house we lease from the city has a hole in the roof.”

Councilor Gary Thompson made a motion to amend the resolution to lower the rent to $120 per year, or $10 per month, rather than the annual $300 stated in the resolution.

“I’ve said this as a serious joke, based on fair market value, we don’t have any fire-breathing dragons in Marshalltown that would want to rent that space to live in,” he said. “After being in there, if I felt I could go lower, I would. There is nobody in my mind that would use that space. . . I think this is one that’s an oddity. It sits by itself. There is no fair market value. So, I just feel that after seeing what it is, what everyone has done on their own expense, we’re a terrible landlord if you really want to get to the bottom of it.”

Tucked directly under the Center Street viaduct, and marked with a black door bearing the CIRGC logo, the club has been there since 1961, providing gun safety and marksmanship classes, a location for state championships and more. Through the years, a variety of community organizations have utilized the space, including the Boy Scouts and 4H.

“The majority of the competitors in events come from outside our community, so they bring revenue to the city,” Gile said. “Our doors are always open to any requests for use of the facility that promotes the shooting sport, especially if there’s youth involved.”

Making the site usable for CIRGC has not been easy or cheap, he told the council, as maintaining and improving the facility has cost them more than $100,000. The club does have a $2 million insurance policy, with an annual cost of $4,000, and Gile said they have never had a recordable incident.

In 2024, the cost of doing business was $11,700, and the club had 116 active members. Each member pays a $100 yearly fee, bringing in a total of $11,600.

“You can see profit is not our major priority,” Gile said.

He told council members that they are appreciative to the city for allowing them the use of the space during the last 64 years and hopes they are able to continue providing a space for residents who enjoy shooting.

Randy Hall, CIRGC vice president, said when they moved into the space in 1961 it was a “damp, dark cave” consisting of mud, gravel and chunks of concrete on no floor. There was no electricity, heat or air conditioning.

“The only reason the city used it was [for] a designated fallout shelter at the time,” he said. “There were barrels of food, medicine and water that were stored in there. From that point, all of the improvements were done by the club.”

In the 64 years, Hall said they have never requested funds or help from the city. In 2000, when construction was done on the viaduct to repair expansion joints and sidewalks, the club moved all of their equipment out of the way.

“By the time we cleaned up the mess that was left from construction, and got everything rebuilt and back in order, it cost us between $7,400 and $7,500,” he said. “We paid for all that. It came from our funds, and we didn’t ask for any assistance to do that repair.”

The club is faced with upcoming viaduct repairs and will have to move everything again. Hall said the improvements they made, such as installing heat and air conditioning so the space could be utilized year-round, will have to be removed and reinstalled by professionals.

“It’s going to cost a lot more,” he said. “We estimate it’s going to be well over $10,000 this time.”

Hall added that they always felt the city was being fair with the lease as the club was not incurring any expense, and they were improving the space. In return, he felt they were providing a resource for residents interested in shooting and a space for organizations at no cost.

“We only ask that we are not required to pay a higher cost on a space that has no other apparent value, especially with the huge expense we have coming up in the next year or two when the repair comes in,” Hall said. “It’s going to cost us a lot of money.”

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.