To the Editor:
It appears Coun. Judy Gadicke is still trying to draw us into a Twilight Zone of making an issue of a non-issue, with a survey in the Regional District of Central Kootenay newsletter, while still ignoring the serious economic issues facing Creston.
Most recently we saw a letter in support of Gadicke from the city of Trail. This individual claimed to have missed a meeting 28 years ago due to Creston not following daylight time. That’s a long time to be carrying a grudge. One can bet though that this person did not miss another meeting due to the time zone. It should also be noted that it was not the fact that Creston does not follow daylight time but rather that we are in a different time zone altogether that caused the missed meeting — a problem that will continue because (as I noted in my previous letter, “Creston Valley faces issues more important than daylight time”) we live on the border of a time zone and will always be doing mental arithmetic when crossing the line, whether it is to the east or to the west.
Gadicke in her July 5 column (“Council Comment: Creston Valley should consider adopting daylight time”) referred to costs amounting to approximately $60,000 per year due to Creston not abiding by daylight time. How are these costs calculated? No evidence was produced to support this claim, and no breakdown of how these numbers were derived accompanied her assertion. I would speculate that this “accounting” is entirely a figment of someone’s imagination. Insofar as Gadicke would like to implement this change, it is up to her to produce believable, verifiable benefits. And she has yet to do so.
In the past five years, the only new economic activity seen in the valley is the opening of the Tim Hortons, the Ramada Creston Hotel and Ricky’s All-Day Grill. While all are admirable businesses, they hardly form the basis for a solid economic underpinning of the valley’s economy. We see many of our offspring moving away from Creston in search of economic opportunity. By ignoring these issues, Gadicke seems content in relegating the remaining folks to an economic underclass. Seriously, how many of the $500,000 houses that are up for sale in town will be purchased by employees of the aforementioned businesses? How many of the employees in the Creston Valley not working directly or indirectly for the government are actually making a living wage?
How many empty storefronts do we need to see before we get any action on the economy? How long do the mills in town need to be reduced to running single shifts before Gadicke decides her efforts are better spent finding an economic boost to the valley? How many of our breadwinners have to travel to Elkford or Northern Alberta before Gadicke realizes the time zone isn’t the issue rather a lack of economic opportunity affecting Creston?
Quite clearly, the promotion of mountain daylight time by Gadicke is merely a diversion created to draw our attention away from the fact that the Creston town council doesn’t have the imagination nor the initiative to do something to stem the decline of Creston’s economic base.
Gary Eisele
Creston