COMMUNITY: Houston Business Awards
SPORTS: Ladies Golf Club Championship
PAGE 9
PAGE 13
Publications Mail Registration #0040028607
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2012
Proudly serving Houston and District - Home of Canada’s Largest Fly Rod
www.houston-today.com
NO. 40 $1.35 Inc. HST
Solar street lights in Houston By Jackie Lieuwen Houston Today
“
Walking along the Buck Creek dike after dark will be safer and more pleasant, lit by several solarpowered street lights. The six lights that cost $36,000 plus $6,000 for installation, are part of the Circle Pathway Project which is funded by a grant, said Houston District’s Chief Administrative Officer Linda Poznikoff. The project includes the sidewalk and curb along 11th Street, from Copeland Avenue to Avalon Avenue, and pathway construction along Buck Creek, as well as six lit resting areas, five along
...“the most energy efficient way to light up the pathway,”
Buck Creek one on 11th street. There are six posts, two were put in Sept. 25 and four more this week, said Kevin Pegg, owner of Energy Alternatives, the installation company for the project. The posts have South-facing, solarelectric panels on the top which charge a bank of batteries that will power the hightech LED lights after dark - “the most energy efficient way to light up the pathway,”
- Kevin Pegg said Pegg. The posts are overbuilt for about ten months of the year, but during December and January, when there’s not a lot of sunshine, it will be the real test for the lights. The street lights are part of a District study into amount of energy that can be stored, and the study results will determine if and how other geothermal systems will be installed in the District.
Mill inspections issue Black Press
Jackie Lieuwen/Houston Today
Kevin Pegg, owner of Energy Alternatives, controls the crane to install the solar-powered street lights on Sept. 25.
A recent article in the Vancouver Sun brought some shortfalls in mill inspections to light. The article (Many B.C. sawmills not inspected for fire risk: Sept. 17, 2012) shed some light on what might be a big gap in safety. Fire inspections on any public building within a municipality are re-
quired by provincial law, but according to research by the Vancouver Sun staff, appear to not be done in a number of municipalities. Four of nine municipalities interviewed for the story had not been doing regular inspections. Those communities not conducting regular inspections include Houston, Fort St. James, Mackenzie and Williams Lake.
Reasons for not completing the inspections cited in the article include a lack of time for fire chiefs who fulfill other roles in the communities, lack of expertise and province-wide reductions in fire commissioner staffing. There is one inspection in the fire commissioner’s office in Prince George who is responsible for northern B.C..