The men in black squeezed off shots from their M-4 rifles from different positions: standing, kneeling and lying prone. Spent shell casings littered the ground. Garbage cans overflowed with cardboard bullet boxes.

The Homeland Security agents were testing their shooting skills last week at the rural range on Galt city property near Twin Cities Road.

The range has proved to be an unusual moneymaker for the city of Galt.

Facing budget shortfalls, layoffs and cuts, other cities in the region also are coming up with creative ways to generate funds. Sacramento hawks copies of local historical images, Rancho Cordova rents out City Hall, and Roseville charges nonviolent prisoners $50 a night to stay in the city jail.

"Cities are really forced to be innovative," said Dan Carrigg, legislative director of the League of California Cities. "They have a lot fewer revenue-raising options than, say, the state Legislature."

The Galt firing facility consists of one 50-yard range with crumbling berms and two portable toilets, but it usually has a waiting list.

Space for a range "is a premium in the Sacramento region," said a Homeland Security agent, whom The Bee is not naming because he works undercover. Law enforcement officers often drive distances to train with their weapons, sometimes as far as the Bay Area.

Galt recently began studying expanding the range into a $3.8 million, 7-acre training facility with two 100-yard rifle ranges and three 50-yard pistol ranges.

Police Lt. James Uptegrove, who recommended the upgrade, said the city will profit as the range's $150 rent jumps to $300 to $500 per range per day.

In Sacramento, officials realized there was demand for copies of historic photos. Three years ago, the city's Sacramento Archives and Museum Collection Center began selling reproductions of historical photos online.

These sales bring in $15,000 to $20,000 a year, said Dylan McDonald, center archivist.

McDonald says those numbers could go even higher when the center launches a new Web site in May – www.zazzle.com/ sacramentoarchives.

There, people can order posters, T-shirts, hats, holiday cards and other memorabilia featuring historical images. The city earns royalties for each order placed.

The merchandise has been available directly from Zazzle.com for the past few months.

"Each time we do a new exhibit (for the History Museum), we create more items and add them up there," McDonald said.

He said shoppers from as far as Alaska and Virginia recently ordered items related to "Capital Brew: Hops, Barrels and Bootleggers," the current brewery exhibit.

The program takes little city staff time, with Zazzle doing most of the work, McDonald said. "We invest the time upfront and we let it run," he said. "It just goes and goes and goes."

The center also rakes in $5,000 to $6,000 a year selling copies of Channel 3 (KCRA) news segments. The station donated its archive of news tapes with copyrights from the late 1950s to the early '80s, McDonald said.

Most popular is footage from the '60s and anything related to the macabre, or mass murder. A recent request from CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" brought in $2,500.

Not to leave a revenue source unturned, Roseville has been offering quite a deal to low-risk, nonviolent offenders. The city's Sentence Prisoner Program allows these offenders to ask a judge to sentence them to nights and weekends at the Roseville jail, so they can keep their jobs while serving their sentences. In return, the city charges $50 a night.

"This is a way we've been able to pay for overhead and use available space at the jail," said Megan MacPherson, communications manager for Roseville.

Elk Grove and Roseville also are taking a more well-traveled route to generate extra revenue. Both cities are working on programs to sell advertising space on city buses and transit shelters.

Tiffani M. Fink, transit manager for Elk Grove, said the city is considering everything from a wrap, which fully covers a bus, to side posters and transit shelter advertising. The city expects to have the program running by fall.

Roseville, which anticipates starting its bus advertising this summer, is looking into selling ads in its parks and recreation guide and possibly on the city Web site, MacPherson said.

The city also has spotted other revenue-generating potential within its multimedia communications.

"We're thinking about maybe allowing people to underwrite programs on our government access stations," she said.

Rancho Cordova, in the meantime, has put its City Hall on the rental market. The hall has a large banquet room, a community boardroom, several conference rooms and a catering kitchen.

The building can be used seven days a week and offers flat-screen TVs, wireless microphones and a winding, brass stairway perfect for brides, said Nancy Pearl, the city's communications director.

"Frankly, any way we can look at improving revenue is very important to us," said Pearl.

Pearl said the city generated $64,400 last year by renting out City Hall space for special events and meetings. The city made $30,000 in the first six months of this fiscal year, she said.

Carrigg said cities are able to respond to demand and be innovative because their leaders are closer to their constituents than other elected officials.

"At City Hall, if something's not working right, you can see the mayor at the grocery store," Carrigg said. "Those people are in the community and are much more accessible, and they are getting more constant feedback about what's working and what's not."

Call The Bee's Diana Lambert, (916) 478-2672.