Summer ritual: Sun Road to open

Even if it’s raining, today’s planned opening of Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road signals the beginning of summer.

It is an ingrained psychological start of the season for many, particularly folks who live and work in the gateway communities around the park and certainly for visitors who don’t make their way to Glacier until they hear that the entire 50-mile historic highway is open.

Unlike other national parks, with networks of roads leading to multiple popular destinations, Glacier’s Sun Road is the main artery into the park’s interior. It is that important.

Let the summer begin, and remember to follow all the appropriate precautions when visiting the park.

Back in the sunlight at last

Venison wrapped in cellophane makes sense, but bronze deer statues wrapped in plastic don’t, so we were glad to see that the bounding deer statue by noted Kalispell sculptor Sherry Salari Sander will soon be out of storage and turning eyes at the corner of Main and Idaho.

It was a shame that political infighting led to this fine piece of art being in mothballs for half a decade. We don’t care how the fight got started, or who was right or wrong — we just want the statue to go up. Wouldn’t mind seeing more public art in Kalispell either, but let’s at least start with what is paid for!

Stimulating simulator

Local law enforcement officers have a new state-of-the-art training facility that allows them to practice real-life scenarios.

An added advantage is that the VirTra simulator at Northwest Shooter also is open to the public to participate in some of the use-of-force scenarios played out on 300-degree screens.

This makes it a plus not only for law officers who can go through realistic training but also citizens who can take part in the simulations.

The simulator promises to be valuable not only to our public servants, then, but also the public.

Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.