 A park that was 25 years in the making open to the public today, Josh Peterson was there and shows us what makes this park so special. With a pull of the trigger, the first shot was fired and the new Northland Regional Shooting Sports Park was officially opened. This park sits on nearly 200 acres of county land that has been transformed into a shooting sports paradise. For some, it's a dream come true. Well, there are times when it kind of chokes me up. It's just an amazing opportunity for the community. For years, many shooting sports enthusiasts traveled to random gravel pits to sight in their guns. Now, Beltrami County provides a place for various forms of target shooting. The partnership with the county is one of the key elements that helped get this project off the ground. We're trying to do it the old-fashioned way, where you do it as you can afford it and we don't have big public debt and we're not pulling a whole bunch of cash out of some coffer and trying to do this. So the volunteers are really the key. One of the major factors that made this park reality was the growing interest in high school trap shooting. Had it not been for the high school program, we probably wouldn't have the funding we've got today with the large trap range grant. While the park is now open, there is still plenty of work to be done. Concrete slabs and building materials sit at the ready for new structures to be built and should be completed and ready for use by next spring. But the park will never really be completed. Probably never. It'll never get completed. There'll always be something, there'll always be improvements being made on the park. In Babidji, I'm Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. And the park is now holding official rifle sight-in days. We'll have those days and times posted on our website at lptv.org. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.