Ex-Holcim dome could be new paintball home

LAPORTE – This was one of the more unusual purchases on the September auction day when Holcim USA Inc. unloaded all its land and water holdings surrounding the company’s decommissioned cement plant in LaPorte: The dome.

Thunder Dome, as the owner of Jax Outdoor Gear in Fort Collins and his employees call it. They say the 35,000-square-foot hemisphere, where Holcim once mixed lime, sand and other cement ingredients, will make the perfect venue for paintball, the fast-growing sport in which weekend warriors draw beads on one another and score by shooting opponents with gelatin capsules filled with marking dye.

It’s a messy…