Whitefish should 'cool it'

After much ado and a legal battle over an ice-cream cone mural, Mrs. Spoonover’s has won the right to keep the colorful sign that adorns the outer wall of the Whitefish restaurant.

It’s hard not to cheer for restaurant owners Joel and Judy Scallen, who took on City Hall to fight for what they believed in.

We understand the city’s job is to uphold the law, but it seemed so heavy-handed from the beginning to order the Scallens to remove the mural because it exceeded their sign allotment and thereby violated the sign ordinance.

Technically, the city was correct in determining the mural is used to draw customers and constitutes a sign — Flathead District Judge Katherine Curtis said as much in her ruling — but Curtis also said the law must be applied in a reasonable, consistent and non-discriminatory fashion. That’s where the city went wrong.

With three other Whitefish businesses, the city failed to treat murals in a consistent manner, the judge noted.

Is there a lesson here for Whitefish? Perhaps.

Maybe the next time the city is at odds with a small business, a compromise can be negotiated before something as simple as an ice-cream cone sign ends up in court.

We urge the Whitefish City Council not to appeal the District Court ruling. Let it go — and go have some ice cream.

This is not a weekend to complain that there’s nothing to do in the Flathead Valley.

Each city in the valley is having a major event.

Columbia Falls is holding its annual Heritage Days celebration, this year with a Glacier Park Centennial theme.

Kalispell has Arts in the Park as well as the Rally in the Rockies downtown.

Whitefish is the site of the first Stumptown BBQ Smoke Off.

And those are on top of major equestrian attractions, The Event at Rebecca Farm and the National O-Mok-See.

Add all these events to the usual enticements of summer (things like Flathead Lake and Glacier Park) and it will be a busy, fun-filled weekend indeed.

Kudos to the Stillwater State Forest for making the Werner Peak Lookout available for public rental.

The scenic lookout perched on top of 6,960-foot Werner Peak north of Whitefish offers panoramic views of the Whitefish Range and beyond.

Now anyone can rent the lookout for $35 a night.

The Forest Service long has been renting cabins and lookouts, and they have proven to be popular destinations.

Now the state forest is going the same route. If Werner Peak works well, rentals of other state lookouts may follow.