A Serious Issue....

This all started with a phone call from Kip....

Apparently, during our November launch, some of our flyers got a bit bored, or curious, or just didn't think about the consequences of their actions, we don't really know. What we do know is that there was some serious vandalism to Kip's property while we were there. It might have been folks that were there to watch and just took the opportunity, it might have been after we left, but on that Sunday there was a call from Kip that was a very serious ultimatum... if anything else happens on our watch we're off his property for good. I'll put Ralph's note that went to the officers group in the "Read More" link with the details of what we know, but PLEASE, if you saw or heard anything about it let one of us know.

We've reviewed and revised our Range Safety and Use rules page and there is a link to it on the left pane of this page. Read it and abide by it or we're toast. I can't make it any plainer than that.

From Ralph...

Gentlemen:
I got a call from Kip tonight with serious concerns of possibly someone in our group messing in the shed that had the roof peeled back off to the south side of the runway. He stated that there were other people (hunters) down there before the launch and did not see his stuff scattered about. Apparently someone got down in that area and turned over a 55 gallon drum full of hubcaps and also pull out some old plow heads and other items and left them in the field. It's not clear that anything was taken and probably was not. However, there is a lot of sharp and rusty equipment in there. Someone could be seriously hurt. If this is the case they have violated a long standing ROCC rule to "Stay out of the buildings and out of the fields except for recovering rockets." If this was the work of kids playing around, which I have seen before playing off the edges of the runway, I would not be surprised. As he stated that if he finds out it is a person attending our events we will be shut down! He suggested that we place one of our officers near that area to make sure no one goes down there. Also, I feel we need to place our safety rules out there again on the website as a reminder and maybe have flyers printed out to give to each car as they come in. This is serious folks, he means business, we have got to take care of this before next launch. We need to post something ASAP. I have attached the Site Rules again for reference. Lets also add to the post that the parents or guardians of kids under the age of 18 most be supervised at all times and to remind their kids of our safety rules.

Again, this may not be anyone's fault in our group but it would be a great time to bring this to light since we had a lot of new attendees this last launch.

On a side note there was a lot of wire and trash left lying around after this last launch that I personally cleaned up on Sunday.

Let's make sure this is addressed promptly as well.

Thanks,
Ralph