Cheers to the entrepreneurial spirit of Dave Gemperle, who announced last week plans to develop a $14 million shooting sports complex in Cranberry Township.

Gemperle and partners — Rick Everly of Butler and Fritz Baehr, an architect from Allegheny County who's designing the project — know there aren't many options for gun owners when it comes to shooting ranges, so they're taking matters into their own hands.

And they have big plans, which they presented Wednesday to the Cranberry Township Planning Commission. They intend to build a 173,000-square-foot shooting complex on 23 acres west of Route 19, near the Park Fire Station.

The Ellwand Shooting Sports Academy will include an indoor shooting complex in the basement, an outdoor archery section, retail space, classrooms, eating facilities and other amenities. There will be different lanes for short, medium and long-range guns. The building will be equipped with sound-absorbing material.

Gemperle, a certified training counselor with the National Rifle Association, envisions an academy complete with firearms classes and lessons. He plans on teaching more than 50 classes per month.

Gemperle says the partners have done their homework: They've studied the region's market and determined there is ample demand to support their venture. They visited dozens of shooting complexes in other regions to learn from their experience. And they've selected a site in a thriving municipality that clearly welcomes — and clearly enforces zoning regulations for — new business ventures.

The township's planning advisory commission is expected to discuss the project during a work session at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the municipal center on Rochester Road. The commission should give this proposal every consideration. It could be a true gem.

Jack Cohen's contention Thursday, that his Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau is immune to the state Sunshine Act, cannot go unchallenged.From where we stand, the issue is clear: If a Pennsylvania agency takes and spends tax money, that agency is subject to public scrutiny.And tax money is the tourism bureau's life blood — by far its biggest revenue source. The county established a hotel bed tax in 2002 specifically to fund the bureau. In 2013, the bureau received $1.3 million in bed tax revenue.Cohen, the executive director, who has just wrangled a re-write of the bureau's bylaws past its 300 members — all the while claiming he's not the driving force behind the changes — now says the agency's nonprofit status means it's never been subject to the Sunshine Act requiring open meetings.Cohen's claim is unfounded, and unprecedented. It won't stand in court — which is where opposing members should next take this issue.

Four score and seven hours ago, more or less, the Butler County board of commissioners abolished their individual reports at board meetings.Minority member Jim Eckstein called it a violation of his free speech.During moments of repose in his office, Eckstein said, he studies the words of Abraham Lincoln for inspiration. He said free speech was a driving force behind the Civil War and thousands of brave young men fought and died defending his right to speak freely.Eckstein's study can't be as diligent as he suggests. The Civil War was about states' rights and slavery; it had no bearing on the First Amendment — just the opposite, in fact. “Honest Abe” was known to suppress opposition newspapers that critized him.Neither does the shutoff of commissioners' reports have anything to do with free speech. As Eckstein demonstrated over and over again at Wednesday's meeting, he has ample opportunity to spout off on virtually every agenda topic.The commissioner reports might have been — should have been — an opportunity to discuss various committees and boards to which individual commissioners are assigned, to update the board about activities, accomplishments and needs within the county, and to draw attention to emerging issues. Unfortunately and undeniably, the reports haven't gone that way in recent years. Maybe they can be resurrected one day, but with enforcement of reasonable parameters.Eckstein's evocation of Lincoln was entertaining, but it also was historically inaccurate.