Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.

 

3 December 2013

Privatizing the city airport’s management: a bad idea

Kalispell, reports the InterLake, is considering hiring Red Eagle Aviation to run the Kalispell City Airport. Red Eagle is the sole fixed base operator at the airport. Kalispell’s city manager, Doug Russell, thinks that would save money.

I think it’s an exceeding bad idea. What’s good for Red Eagle is not necessarily what’s good for Kalispell. The arrangement would have a built-in conflict of interest.

If the city wants Red Eagle to run the airport, it should sell the airport to Red Eagle.

It’s best not to get lost

Over Thanksgiving, two hunters got lost west of Kalispell on Haskill Mountain, near Lake Rogers. Realizing they were lost, they stopped and called for help. A volunteer search and rescue team found them and reunited them with their truck and a known location in two or three hours. A SAR leader heaped praise on the lost men for making smart decisions after they realized they were lost.

Getting lost, however, results from unwise decisions. Hunters who become lost have miserable land navigation skills. Equipped with map, compass, and GPS receiver, and the knowledge to use them, knowing where one is, and knowing the way back home, is within everyone’s grasp. But there is not enough focus on the importance of not getting lost. Instead, the focus is on what to do if one becomes lost.

Land navigation probably should be taught in our public schools as a standard, and required, subject. Unfortunately, it’s not. Instruction in the subject is left to private groups such as the Boy Scouts, hiking clubs, and orienteering groups, and on the water, similar associations and the Coast Guard and its auxiliaries. Outside of the armed services, there’s no standard navigation curriculum. Some people fall through the cracks. Later, some of these people become lost. I think fewer would become lost if land navigation were a mandatory subject in our public schools.

LED Christmas lights: safer and less expensive

Several years back, I gave my incandescent Christmas light to charity, replacing them with LED lights, which run cooler and require less power. Over the weekend I placed 240 C-5 and 200 C-9 lights on two bushes near my front porch. Yesterday, before the blizzard roared in, I measured the lights’ electrical draw with my Kill-A-Watt meter: 23 watts. Burning the lights six hours a day during December will consume three to four kilowatt hours, and cost approximately 25 cents.