To the Editor:
(Re: “Council Comment: Creston Valley should consider adopting daylight time”)
If Coun. Judy Gadicke could change anything in the Creston Valley it would be adopting daylight time?
Instead of working to improve the local economy by bringing business to Creston, Gadicke has revived the groundless argument of saving electricity by moving to daylight time. There are plenty of real issues affecting the citizens of Creston that require council action, so why bring up daylight time? Broadening our economic base from two or three sawmills and one brewery surely is a more pressing issue than saving some daylight time. How many empty storefronts in the downtown core are required before we see some inventive thinking?
Gadicke claims 25 per cent of a household’s electricity is consumed by lighting and small appliances. But she neglects to tell us how much of that electricity would actually be saved by moving to mountain daylight time (MDT). If the supposed benefit of MDT is to use sunlight to light one’s tasks rather than electrical lighting, I fail to see how using my stove at 6 p.m. rather than 5 p.m. will save any electricity — it is on for 20 minutes every day regardless. In fact, the estimates I’ve found indicate that there are no savings in electrical usage in the real world by moving to daylight time.
There are real world dangers to daylight time, as people in the transportation industry are all too well aware. Every year when moving forward in the spring, we get one hour less sleep — and automobile accidents rise. We already live in an area where inattention at the wheel can have serious consequences, so why should we increase the odds of an accident? Workers on the Monday following the spring time change also experience an increase in job related injuries.
Gadicke complains of the complications with making appointments elsewhere; however, we live on the border of a time zone and there will always be mental arithmetic involved when crossing to another zone. If we align ourselves with Cranbrook, we’ll be wondering what time it is in Sandpoint or Nelson. And why should we align ourselves with Cranbrook when I and many of my acquaintances in this town have more business with Nelson or Sandpoint, both of which use Pacific time?
If we were serious about saving the town money, perhaps we could refrain from resurrecting dead issues and start moving forward with new proposals to enrich the valley.
Gary Eisele
Creston