On September 1, Vice Mayor Valeche joined officials with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), Florida Youth Conservation Centers Network and State Senator Maria Sachs to break ground on a new state-of-the-art shooting sports park to be operated by FWC in northern Palm Beach County.

The site of the range is the Mecca property, which was previously purchased by the County in 2004 as part of the Scripps Florida project, and was subsequently sold to the South Florida Water Management District with the condition that 150 acres be set aside for FWC to develop a shooting range for public use.

The facility is designed to be of Olympic training quality, and significant planning efforts have been made to provide maximum safety and protection of the environment. This will be the largest, premiere shooting range in Florida and fees will be no more than $10 per day.

Classroom space is planned and will help serve hunter safety and youth programs at the J. W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area. It is anticipated that the range will draw competitions and will provide an additional training site for law enforcement on closed days.

The Phase 1 portion of the park is projected to be completed by June 2017.