A cheer-salute to Ben Lesniak, a 2011 Knoch High School graduate who helped avert a highway disaster early Sunday morning.

Lesniak, 21, now a cadet at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, was traveling after midnight in a bus with the academy's club hockey team on Interstate 95 in Connecticut when the driver became sick and began losing consciousness, causing the bus to swerve.

Lesniak took the wheel while another cadet moved the driver. A third cadet attempted to locate and turn off the cruise control and find an emergency brake — all while the bus continued rolling at about 70 mph.

It took about five minutes to stop the bus. Nobody was injured.

“It was a crazy situation,” Lesniak said later. “It was one of those things you just never expect to happen.”

Travis Fender, a medical corpsman who was traveling with the team, praised the actions of the cadets.

“I'm a firm believer that a good many of us would be dead,” Fender said, if Lesniak and the other cadets had not acted.

It makes us proud to know a hero hails from Butler County.

Youthful indiscretion might be the best defense Chad Ashcraft can offer for his alleged offenses Wednesday afternoon. The 18-year-old Butler man was pulled over around 1 p.m. on Hansen Avenue for an inspection tag violation.Seven minutes of high-speed pursuit and a collision with a police cruiser later, Ashcraft is alleged to have piled up a number of criminal violations: aggravated and simple assault, fleeing and eluding police, recklessly endangering another person, driving under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia, reckless driving, careless driving and numerous other charges including an inspection violation, running stop signs, speeding, driving on roads laned for traffic and duty of driver on approach of an emergency vehicle.Police from Butler city and township got involved in the pursuit along with state troopers. They said Ashcraft ran his car into a cruiser and nearly hit officers as they deployed a spiked stop-strip intending to flatten Ashcraft's tires. They said the damaged cruiser was used moments later to ram the fleeing vehicle and stop it.Youthful indiscretion? Maybe. An 18-year-old might claim not to understand the severity, life-threatening danger and illegality of speeding away from a police stop.Police aren't always right — that's why we have courts and juries to sort out the difficult and often stressful cases. But in any event, defiance of a law enforcement officer doing his or her job can only lead to more criminal charges.Now, Ashcraft should understand that fleeing a police stop never is a good idea. His misadventure should serve as a learning experience for his entire generation. Don't run from cops.

Cheers to the members of the Butler Area Sewer Authority and other municipal boards and authorities, as they explore the possibility of meeting at night rather than in the morning in response to a request from Mayor Tom Donaldson to make board activities more accessible to the public.The sewer authority's board will discuss that possibility at its March meeting. Currently, the board meets at 9 a.m.A rescheduling won't be done blindly. Board Vice Chairman Robert Swartz said, adding that daytime meetings work best for him. It also apparently works better for many solicitors and consultants advising these boards.In January, the City of Butler Parking Authority changed its meetings from Thursday afternoon to Wednesday night because of the city council motion.The public should appreciate and take advantage of efforts by governing boards to make themselves more available. Municipal boards could take another step toward accessibility by posting online the video recordings, minutes and other pertinent documents for public review. Advancing technologies make online postings an affordable and efficient way to engage the public.