Page 4A y.

‘The Castlegar Sun

Wednesday, August 7, 1991

‘Wednesday, August 7, 1991'

“The Castlegar Sun

Streetcar progress well under way after rainy delay

“Substantial progress" " was
made on a trackline for Streetcar
No. 23 through the Chahko Mika
Mall parking lot during the first
weeks of July, Bob Clark told a
meeting of the Nelson Electric
Tramway ‘Society's’ board of
directors Tuesday night...

». But'Clark, who is project man-
ager for the streetcar, said rains
that arrived on July flooded exca-
vations on the site and slowed
work down. About 250 feet of
excavating remains to be done, he
said. It’s still hoped that the track-
line will bear the weight of stcel
wheels in September,

The board of directors voted to
spend $150 a day on a backhoe,

which will-be contracted for at
least 10 days, to.work on various
parts of the trackline,

The backhoe, will not likely
solve a,“continuing problem”
with tramway poles that sit near
the'end of the Nelson airstrip,
however...) . +,

According to city ‘councit rep-
resentative George’ Millar, com-
plaints about the polés,:which
may pose a hazard to flight
because of their proximity’ to the
end of the airstrip, are’still being

registered frequently. Mike Cul-

ham, who chairs the board of
directors, said the poles are going
to remain in place for the time

being, but a solution to the prob- ‘

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lem is still the object ofa quest.
Millar said there's been. diffi-
culty getting members, of, the
local pilots’ association together
with the Tramway Society, board
for discussions. about the poles
because of holidays — it’s hard
finding a suitable time when

everyone can be at a meeting. In.

September he expects a meeting

could be held,
One possible solution to the
problem could involve relocating
the end of the tramway loop, said
Culham.
And on the subject of poles,
‘Hamilton & Co. is

responsibility’ for its paint job.
City council has offered to paint
four of them. ’

And a program that will put
students to work on the site on
Aug. 6 is about a quarter of the

all other Nelson law firms to
adopt a pole,” said Culham,
Adopting a pole means taking

‘way.to d by
Employment Canada's Hire A
Student ‘program, the’ project has
:Nelson. businesses pulling in $5

‘for one student's employment for:
one hour, and so far enough;
money has been received for:
about 250 hours — that's a
week's work for six students, and:
Culham said the board wants:
enough for 12 students to work:
‘ two weeks,

X-ray machine to cost more

than first anticipated

obviously have to be moved at ;
the time of the redevelopment,” ;

A $450,000 x-tay maciine
needed by Kootenay Lake Dis-
trict Hospital (KLDH) will cost
several thousand dollars more
because of ‘redevelopment plans
at KLDH, ‘but the costs are
unavoidable, says hospital admin-
istrator Jack Miller.

The hospital is “scheduled for
construction beginning in the
spring of 1992 — work that will
add some new wings to the cur-

rent building and improve the’

layout of the emergency depart- |:

ment and other parts of KLDH.
The job should be finished by the
end of 1993, said Miller.

But soon a new X-ray machine
will be purchased and will be
installed ina 17-year-old X-ray
room, where equipment in use
now is barely functioning. Some
time during the _—

unit will have to be moved to its
newly-built room.

But Miller told the board of
trustees of KLDH at Wednes-
day's regular meeting that in
1982, X-ray equip was

Miller said.

He said the health ministry has :
issued approval “to purchase the -

X-my unit,” and “we :

installed there at a cost of
$12,000. So when the new piece
is ready to be moved to its new
the move will cost a

which will be carried out in
stages to avoid interruption of use
of the hospital — that new X-ray

large amount of money.
"Any major equipment that's
moving into a new space will

possible.
If a line falls
across your

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Ice storms, high winds «
or fallen tree limbs can
bring hydro lines
down. And even a
fallen wire that.seems
dead can be dangerou:

So don’t go near thé
wires, warn others not to
and report the fallen wires
to your local hydro or
the police as soon as’

vehicle, stay inside
until a hydro
crew removes the
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fallen wires

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now are entering and will be’
going through the purchasing
process.” He said the provincial
government will pay for 60 per
cent, or $270,000, of the
$450,000 cost, and it’s

Celeb ating. a) \Centennial in telecommunications

Vernon and Nelson Telephone conan work crew place cable along the. original

route in 1896.
“Mr. Watson, come here; I
want you!” These seven words

pany hired workers to build an
i and

ing, providuly buried at the back of

the regional district pay for the

rest. 1

Since Trail and Castlegar hos-
pitals are also looking at buying
new X-ray equipment, a “group
purchase" is being considered to
“gain some advantage,” said
Miller. “We're looking at well
over a million dollars worth of
equipment here (between all three
hospitals),” he said.

In other KLDH board news,
two letters have recently been
received asking for more private
facilities for patients receiving
anticancer drugs. Because
chemotherapy is often an upset-
ting process, the letter-writers
said, private accommodations
should be available for those
patients. Since June 1,
chemotherapy treatments have
been given in the emergency
wing, but with a reconstructed
hospital there will’ be a new
ambulatory patient department,
where such activity can take
place with appropriate privacy,
Miller said. In the meantime, he
said ‘would be useful if.we could
oe, put. up some buffer wails” to.
improve the “atmosphere” for
cancer patients receiving drugs.

However, again because of the
reconstruction of KLDH, spend-
ing money now on fixing up
rooms could come under fire
when it all gets tom down, so ‘we
will continue to monitor it,” said

Please Recycle

the Sun

to process the increas-

a young -born

igfiinventor and his assistant in

*Boston on March 10, 1876,
‘formed the world’s first telephone

ing volume of calls.
In 1904, the company official-
ly became me British Columbia

was now
bound on its own and called the
“Yellow Pages.”

As astronauts landed on the moon
and social reform began to stir,

It was an
‘that ‘triggered a’ revolution.
Telecommunications was bom.
William Wall, a young hi

its new sare as a provincial

con-
tinued to march forward. B.C. Tel
such i ions as the

utility. As B. Pp grew,
fee service

ic with the mining firm Di i

d and surged

Diggle and Company, is credited
with hooking up B.C.'s first tele-
phones on Vancouver Island.

+s... Working from illustrations of the

new invention that appeared in
Scientific American, he crafted the

F&“primitive devices using copper
&

+, bands from old powder kegs,
3 imagnets and other odds and ends.
The two telephones were then

i82strung up with wire several miles

apart, one at the company’s mine
site and the other at the Departure
Bay loading docks.

The first telephone calls were
made by tapping the phone witha
pencil, in the hope that someone
at the other end heard the noise
and answered,

These “talking boxes” quickly

bbed the public’s
With the: first commercial phoné-
line Gpéritibnal in 1880, the'first-
telephone company in B.C.
opened shop with 45 subscribers
and called itself the Victoria and
Esquimalt Tel C

It was one of several telephone
companies that eventually
b the British Col

forward. Hand-cranked telephone

hands-free phorie, closed-
circuit television to the classroom
and special communications
for the hearing-

sets gave way to battery
manual systems, In 1929, B.C, Tel

impaired. Re company. also

installed its first ic switch-
ing system in the Fraser Valley
of After 40

system for
apartment dwellers, known as the
One of the most sig-

years of operator-assisted calls,
customers now had dial service. To
ease the transition, a “Flying
Squadron” of 65 B.C. Tel employ-
ees roamed the Fraser Valley,
instructing callers on the use of the
remarkable new feature. B.C. Tel
became one of the founding
members of the Trans-Canada
Telephone System, an ambitious
project that sought to provide
long distance service from coast
to coast. When the line was com-
pleted at the end of 1931, infor-

‘mation could travel across.the -

country in 78 seconds. 21. 5
+ Another pioneering effort- in
the 1930s was the use of radio-
telephones to provide long dis-
tance service to remote areas.
B.C. Tel was the first company in
the world to install such a system
over water, connecting the isolat-
ed ities along B.C.’s

Telephone Company.
Telephone service expanded

throughout B.C.’s Lower Main- :

land during the Kootenay boom of
the 1890s. In 1891, a group of
coastal phoné men launched the
Vernon and Nelson Telephone
Company, intent on acquiring
many of the smaller companies:
operating around the province. It
was at this point B.C. Tel’s vibrant
history began.. Competition was
fierce. At the turn of the century,
there were 45 telephone compa-
nies servicing B.C. Within a few
years, telephones became tightly;
regulated, as they were deemed to
be a vital public service.. |=
Telephone ‘companies were.
granted monopoly rights and:
assumed responsibilities for their
specific service areas. The Ver-
non and Nelson Telephone Com-

rugged coastline.

The next technological break-
through came in July 1958, when
member companies of the Trans-
Canada Telephone System finished
work on a 6,200 km (3,800 mile)
chain of microwave towers span-
ning the country. Microwave sig-
nals had replaced wires. The
“invisible skyway” improved long
distance service and carried the
first live national television broad-
casts. People could now hear and
watch news from across the nation.

Coupled with further advances in
technology, the 1950s brought soci-
ological changes. The end of the war
years produced a “baby boom.” Peo-
ple moved to the suburbs. Con-
sumerism flourished. « Colour
telephones were:“in,” while plain
black “workhorse” telephones
became passe. Classified advertis-

nificant advances occurred in
1961, when customers could begi
dialing their own long distas ice,
calls. H

Economic activity at this ‘ina
was brisk — the province was

joying the longest
boom of its history. So striking
was the growth, daily long dis-
tance calling volumes nearly
tripled between 1958 and 1969, In
the early 1970s, satellite transmis-
sions of voice, data and image were
added to Canada’s cross-country

1 system and
york, Ending the ge

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TRAIL, PRUTVALE, BOSILANO.
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‘igolation of! many: of B.C.

remote communities, satellites
could transmit telephone ‘calls,
television programs and digital
information around the world,
The invention of the silicon chip
profoundly changed'B.C."Tel's
telecommunications capabilities.

~< products chtered the: (market _

fax machines, personal comput-
ers, '\ telephone ‘‘answering
machines, VCRs, CD players, cel-
lular phones — offering compa-
nies and individuals the tools to

UNE Y
seize ‘opportunities, . maximize.
Icisure pursuits and stay competi-
tive in an increasingly dynamic:
world. *

If Alexander Graham belt
could only sce us now!

ig digi
foe — “bits” instead of sound
‘waves — meant faster, more reli-
able call connections. To’ i improve
customer service, B.C. Tel initiat-
ed a network changeover to com-

P digit

This enhancement brought pes
button phones .to the market. In
1974, B.C. Tel became. the, first
Canadian telephoné company to
use a computerized system of pro-
cessing operator-handled, long
distance calls. The emergence of
the “Information Age” in the
1980s had an cnormous impact on.
peoples’ professional, and person-"

} al lives, A proliferation of new

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