I N S I D E : The mysterious Mr. Smith. Page 12
Journal ASHCROFT t CACHE CREEK
Volume 121 No 3 PM # 400121123
The
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Serving Clinton, Spences Bridge, Lytton, Savona, Walhachin and surrounding areas Since 1895
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Digitization planned by TNRD
A little snowy scene at Ashcroft Manor, where the snow is - or was until a few days ago - silent and deep. Winter has taken brief turn towards mild.
Ashcroft troubled by waste explanation Ashcroft Council wasn’t satisfied with Belkorp Environmental Services (BESI) answer to their question about slaughterhouse waste being allowed at the landfill extension, and they plan to tell them that in a letter. Council asked Belkorp whether it was true that the waste would be allowed in the extension. Animal waste has always been excluded from municipal waste in the past, but Belkorp staff indicated last fall that they were working with the Ministry of Environment to accomodate the provincial government which was looking for a way to dispose of slaughterhouse waste. “Under the proposed concept,” wrote vice president Russ Black, “animal by-products would be received on-site and digested in a fully con-
tained reactor. Biogas would be captured and utilized and once fully stabilized the treated material would be disposed of in the Exension. All of these activities would be regulated and controlled undera permit issued by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.” Acceptance of the waste would be included in the Extension’s Operational Certificate, which has not yet been approved. The OC is applied for by Belkorp and the Village of Cache Creek who are partners. “If this project were to move ahead,” continued Black, “BESI would site the treatment facility within the landfill property for the Extensio whch would serve to diversify the established operations and further enhance both economic and employment opportun-
ities within the communities of Ashcroft and Cache Creek.” “I read letter several times,” said Coun. Helen Kormendy, noting that the letter began by saying there were no plans to dispose of slaughterhouse waste at the Landfill or the Annex, but later described disposal at the Extention. “To me, it is the same thing,” she said. “The language is... still a huge concern for me.” “Hearing it in (The Journal) first is the part that’s sort of troublesome,” said Mayor Andy Anderson. “We need to let Mr. Black know this is a concern for us,” said Kormendy. “We have to let him know we’re in disagreement. This can get into our water system, and that’s my concern.”
The Thompson Nicola Regional District Library system is looking for support to digitize the area’s newspapers in order to make the information searchable for future generations. Marc Saunders, Director of Libraries for the TNRD was at Ashcroft’s Council meeting Monday night asking for their support. “This is the thing,” Saunders told them, “500-600 years from now, if we handle the data properly, our great great great great grandchildren are going to be using this. That floats my boat.” The multi-year project plans to digitize newspapers from nine communities within the TNRD, including Ashcroft, and turn the information on the pages into a searchable database. To do that means copying each page as a high resolution image. He said the work would eventually contain over million images probably more than a million and a half. “Some people would say this is overly ambitious,” said Saunders. “I believe in shooting for the stars and if you land on the moon, at least you’ve made it that far.” The Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal, he said, was identified as one of the papers with tremendous historical significance, being the oldest newspaper in the region, and will be a part of the project from the start. Issues of The Journal date back to 1895 and the bound copies are housed in the Ashcroft Museum. The project will include current newspapers, but also papers that are no longer publishing such as the Cache Creek Pioneer, Kamloops Wawa, Copper Tailings and Logan Lake Leader, the Chase Tribune and the Merritonian. Saunders had three requests for Council: 1. assistance with research as needed from the Museum; 2. assistance with fundraising by identifying companies will-
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ing to assist with the project; and 3. the use of one full set of The Journal for copying. Council thanked him for his presentation and asked for time to study the ramifications of his request. “Some people ask why not let the newspapers take care of it?” said Saunders, who replied that the history recorded in the newspapers was a public resources. He said the reasons were many, but he gave them a few “really obvious reasons” that included: preserving local history, increasing access, improving service, creating awareness about what we have unique in TNRD, creating an increased presence on the internet for the communities involved, engaging our communities and especially the students who can use the information for class assignments, and telling the stories of our communities to the world. Coun. Helen Kormendy recounted that her grandfather fought in World War I, and Museum curator Kathy Paulos found out that his troop passed through Ashcroft in 1915 by looking through old issues of The Journal. She said the article is still stuck to her fridge. “But, how can we be sure the technology will be there in 600 years?” she asked. Saunders said the software would change over the years, but the high resolution images would remain the same and be migrated to the new platforms as they developed, and the project would be using the latest methods of data preservation Besides being searchable, the information would also be hosted on a neutral website that reflected the donations from different sources. It should be accessible through a variety of different websites, he added. He said he was expecting some of the material to be available for public use by the Fall of this year.
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