Pilot both amusing and confusing

The March 23 edition of the Whitefish Pilot was amusing and confusing. The front page dinged the Great Northern Brewery Co. for violating the city’s sign code and dark sky ordinance, while in the “Town & Country” section lauded the Great Northern Brewery Co. as Whitefish’s Business of the Year.

The front page article cites John Phelps, the former city attorney, warning that the city doesn’t “appear to be enforcing our sign ordinance consistency.” To do so requires objective standards and community common interests. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s colloquial expression of “I know it when I see it” phrase comes to mind when we attempt to categorize an observable situation by a subjective standard.

Some are quick to complain about the car dealers’ use of balloons, while decorating their own business with ribbons. Yet both are designed to attract business by catching the eye, and both probably violate some subjective standard of the sign code. It seems that we are quick to point out others violations while ignoring our own.

I purchased a vacation home in Sedona and am struck by the community’s approaches to sign and dark sky ordinances. Sedona perhaps does a better job of being a community with similar or common interests and has fewer violations of sign and dark sky ordinances.

In contrast, Whitefish’s community has not had the same common interests when it comes to signs and lights. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that Sedona has 300 days of sunshine and clear nights as well as not observing daylight saving. Whitefish’s winter nights are often cloudy and gloomy, and summer days go on and on. There is a reason why Whitefish’s Christmas lights don’t come down until after Winter Carnival, and our July 4th fireworks don’t go off until after 11 p.m.

Sometimes a lighted sign helps in winter, and infrequent and approved use of a searchlight bouncing off the low cover of clouds during Winter Carnival holds some charm. In any case, it makes for interesting Whitefish Pilot reading.

Tom Muri lives in Whitefish.