There were ballots instead of bullets, but hot comments did fill the air at the Oregon Trail Shooting Range clubhouse Thursday night during the election of officers for the Gate City Sport Shooting Association.

    The harshest exchanges were between association president Mike VanBrunt, who was re-elected as president, and members Steve McClung and Rick Hillman.

    Before ballots were counted in the election, three proxy votes from Hillman were rejected. Association bylaws state only family members who are living at a member’s home and considered association members can cast proxy votes.

    “What are trying to pull, Mike?” Hillman said to VanBrunt.

    Later in the meeting when a discussion about recognizing the newly formed Portneuf Vaqueros cowboy shooting group and the use of the range became tense, VanBrunt threatened to throw McClung out of the meeting, which about 50 members attended for the election of new officers.

    When the ballots were counted, VanBrunt defeated Richard Lopez for president, a member who was absent but nominated by Hillman. Sam Laoboonmi, owner of Sam’s Gun Shop in Pocatello, was elected vice president; David Read, secretary; Wade Tolman, treasurer; and Dennis Freudentahl as director-at-large. The director-at-large is the person responsible for maintenance at the range.

    Interaction between members of the group became tense again when board of director’s member Dennis Reader offered a pair of resolutions to be considered at the February meeting. Both dealt with reserving shooting areas at the range and recognizing new clubs.

    “Let’s solve it so we don’t have the problem in the future,” Reader said.

    There was some debate over whether to consider the proposals and put them up for a vote of the membership in February with VanBrunt maintaining the issue of new club recognition as it applies to the Portneuf Vaqueros had already been decided.

    However, a majority of those attending the meeting voted to consider Reader’s motions next month.

    The first motion would codify that all scheduled or reserved area events would be decided during the association’s February meeting, and any requests for additional reserved area events would have to be brought to the association a month in advance.

    The reservation time for shooting range areas would be broken into three blocks of time: 7 a.m. to noon, noon to 5 p.m. and 5 p.m. to dark.

    The second motion sets the rules for recognizing new shooting groups such as the Portneuf Vaqueros. The group would have to have a minimum of eight members and a representative who attends a minimum of eight of the 10 regular membership meetings each year. New groups would also have to keep a log of all people attending their events in a reserved shooting area.

    Before Thursday’s voting, Bill Purnell stepped down as secretary-treasurer of the association after 15 years of service. He said he enjoyed his job, but it was time to let someone else handle the chores.

    As his last order of business, Purnell presented the membership with the final financial report of the year. The association had 981 annual paid members in 2014, plus additional lifetime members. The annual membership fee is $50, and a lifetime membership is $500.

    The general account for the association had a balance of $41,427 and an operations account balance of $56,421.