Keep your fingers crossed and your safety switch on.

It could be a long time before the Farragut Park Shooting Range reopens.

After Idaho Fish and Game poured roughly $350,000 into facility improvements to have a court injunction lifted on the popular range, neighbors of the site have already filed a formal objection.

"Where it stands, this case will ultimately be decided in the Idaho Supreme Court, because no matter what the district court judge does, whether for us or against, either they (Fish and Game) or we will appeal to the Supreme Court," said Harvey Richman, one of the legal representatives for the several Bayview residents who first sued over the range's lack of safety. "Should we not prevail in Idaho Supreme Court, which I frankly believe we shall, we have the 9th circuit (U.S. Court of Appeals) to resort to. It is possible this case may go on for years. I mean literally: Years."

Four years have passed already since the 60-year-old gun range was closed in a settlement over locals' complaints of noise and stray bullets. A district judge deemed the range could reopen when new safety stipulations were met.

The facility is ready, said David Leptich, regional wildlife biologist for the Fish and Game Coeur d'Alene office.

Well, part of it, at least.

Although improvements are dragged out by financial constraints, the state has made enough changes to warrant at least opening the 100-yard shooting range, Leptich said.

Fish and Game, which will discuss the situation at a meeting today and tomorrow in Kellogg, submitted a request in June for the courts to lift part of the injunction so the facility can reopen just that section.

"These (changes) have made it the safest range in several hundred miles," the biologist said.

On Tuesday, he walked across the range and pointed out the improvements to the once open field: Excavation that lowered the range and added 12-foot berms to muffle noise and catch bullets, as well as a new three-sided shooting shed with an armored roof.

Six overhead safety baffles of steel and wood will prevent bullets from traveling downrange, Leptich added. The baffles will also meet the judge's stipulation of a range where blue sky isn't visible.

"With the overhead safety baffles and the bullet proof panels you shoot under, from any shooting position, you cannot shoot a bullet out of the range," Leptich said.

He hopes a district judge will approve reopening the range before elk season this year, he added.

"I think they (users) will feel very good about the facility," he said.

It won't happen, Richman said.

Besides filing the current objection to Fish and Game's request to reopen, his clients plan to appeal any court's decision favoring Fish and Game, he said.

"They (Fish and Game) insist they've met the safety standard for 500 shooters, and we say not even close," Richman said.

He has a photograph to prove the range doesn't qualify as a no-blue-sky facility, he said, and a hired engineer concluded that the improvements won't ensure the safety of nearby residences.

"We have serious, competent professional evidence that the way the range is constructed today, bullets can and will go over the berm," Richman said, adding that he couldn't disclose the engineer's name at this time. "From our perspective, they have made a series of mistakes, omissions, they've taken shortcuts and they're not compliant."

Richman's clients also have strong doubts the range can meet the judge's order of not exceeding a sound level beyond 55 dBA, he said.

"Our experts say it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to meet that 55 dBA without building an enclosed structure," he said.

He added that Fish and Game could also relocate to other public land that is more remote.

Leptich couldn't be reached late Tuesday afternoon to respond to Richman's statements.

The shooting range was built as part of the Farragut Naval Training Station in the '40s, and came under public ownership in 1950, Leptich said.

He estimated that in years prior to the closure, between 2,000 to 2,500 used the range each year.

Farragut State Park gets daily inquiries about the status of the range during the summer, said Park Manager Randall Butt.

"The range is located to provide service to the area between Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint, and traditionally there were a number of people who incorporated use of the range during their stay at Farragut," Butt said. "It would be a good recreational opportunity for those people to have."