Residents of Keremeos tried to repeat last year’s victorious Earth Hour challenge, but fell short as the community of Salmo in the West Kootenay took honours in this Saturday’s one hour power reduction challenge.

A dedicated effort was put forward by the residents of Keremeos, where an informal publicity campaign was pursued by the village office as well as by several people in the business community.

Keremeos also fell just slightly short of the number of pledges needed to beat Similkameen rival Princeton, both communities having made a  friendly bet between municipal councils for dinner. Princeton came in with a 24 per cent pledge sign up of the population, to Keremeos’ 22 per cent, finishing fourth and fifth respectively. Salmo apparently achieved a 102.28 per cent pledge rate, second to Kaslo – Crawford Bay at 95.84 per cent.

Salmo will put the $5,000 prize towards energy efficient upgrades at the Salmo Public Library.