Sun Road crews really came through

Inter Lake editorial

It may be the latest since World War II, but the Wednesday opening of Going-to-the-Sun Road over Logan Pass was a hard-won accomplishment for Glacier National Park road crews.

The last time Sun Road opened so late was July 10, 1943, when the park had a reduced staff because of the war. But this year, crews battled a winter that just would not seem to end.

Snowstorms hammered the alpine section of the road until mid-June, protracting the avalanche season. After the second week of June, avalanches cut loose in 25 chutes above the road, with 20 of them crossing the road.

Crews had to re-plow all of those crossings, and they managed to do it safely. Congratulations to them.

And now that the venerable alpine highway is completely open, it's the unofficial start to the full summer season in Glacier Park.

Columbia Falls has a group of community leaders that perseveres to get things done. That was evident when the First Best Place Task Force recently closed a deal to buy the former Glacier Bank building on Columbia Falls' original town square.

The project includes relocating the library to the bank building and perhaps opening a coffee shop on the site, making it "the community's living room," one organizer said.

That area, with valuable urban green space, is an important centerpiece for Columbia Falls and has been the site of band concerts, community festivals and public gatherings over the decades. Preserving it is a key step in community revitalization.

Kudos to a hard-working task force.

The increasing pinch of prices at the gas pump is leading to changes in transportation choices.

As fuel prices climb to levels we've never seen before, people are getting creative in the ways they use to get around. Some of that creativity involves modes of transport with better gas mileage: motorcycles, all-terrain four-wheelers, scooters and tiny subcompact cars.

And gas-free alternatives are increasing as well, with more bicyclists, long-board riders and even pedestrians on the streets and sidewalks.

As commuters downsize, it means that all motorists need to be aware they are sharing the roads with vehicles that are smaller and harder to see.

Around the Flathead Valley, we're used to the summer influx of big recreational vehicles; now we need to pay attention to vehicles at the other end of the size spectrum.