THURSDAY
S I N C E
SEPTEMBER 25, 2014
1 8 9 5
Vol. 119, Issue 150
105
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PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALMO
Smart meters set up started
THE CENTRE OF ATTENTION
BY LIZ BEVAN Times Staff
After months of build-up and debate, FortisBC has begun smart meter installations in Trail. Through the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) project, FortisBC will be making its way around the Kootenays and the Okanagan replacing traditional electricity meters with new smart meters. After new meters are installed in Trail, FortisBC will be moving on to Warfield, Salmo, Ymir, Nelway, then Fruitvale, Montrose and Rossland. The installation process will then move to Kelowna, the South Okanagan, Similkameen and Boundary and then back to finish off the Kootenays in late 2015. After a few safety scares with smart meters in Saskatchewan, FortisBC wants to assure customers that before a contractor installs the new meter, the hook-up will receive a close safety inspection. “As with any project we do, safety is always a primary consideration,” explained David Wylie, corporate communications advisor at FortisBC. “Every customer-owned meter base will be inspected prior to installation of a FortisBC AMI meter. The inspection will flag any unusual wiring, See SOME, Page 3
LIZ BEVAN PHOTO
Fireweed the Goat was in the Trail and District Public Library on Tuesday afternoon to visit with the kids in the Makerspace Tool Time program. Fireweed visited with her owners, Richard and Margaret Malcolm of Rainbow Recovery Farm in Casino. The afternoon event also included a presentation about Fireweed and beekeeping at the farm.
Funding promotes adult literacy in Columbia Basin BY LIZ BEVAN Times Staff
The Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy (CBAL) has just received a piece of a $2.4 million grant from the province to promote adult literacy. Last Friday, the Ministry of Advanced Education announced a province-wide funding initiative to continue adult literacy programs in several communities, supporting 9,000 adult learners in B.C. Ali Wassing, executive director at CBAL, says the Columbia Basin's portion of the funding will be distributed around all of the communities
CBAL has a presence in. “Our piece of (the funding) for adult literacy is roughly $32,000,” she said. “This funding gets distributed throughout community areas like Trail, Castlegar, Nakusp, Kaslo, Salmo and Nelson. It is going all around (the Columbia Basin).” The money is only part of the funding required to keep CBAL going and Wassing says it will go towards promoting literacy learning programs for both adults and families in the region. “It supports programs that deal with basic adult literacy, but also seniors' computer learning programs, some parenting programs and
those types of things,” she said. “To support family literacy, there are programs that are geared towards adults and support them in building early literacy in their children.” Sonia Tavares, community literacy coordinator for CBAL, says the programs geared towards family literacy are vital to ensuring high literacy rates with the next generation of learners. “We do Mother Goose programs at the libraries in Beaver Valley and in Trail,” she said. “It is a singing a rhyming time for parents and their children to promote early literacy and learning while keeping things fun.” See LOCAL, Page 3
Contact the Times: Phone: FineLine250-368-8551 Technologies 62937 Index 9 Fax:JN250-368-8550 80% 1.5 BWR NU We in the industry newspaper aretocommitted ourthe impact on the environment. For example, our newsprint Newsroom: We in the newspaper areindustry committed reducing to ourreducing impact on environment. For example, our newsprint suppliers plant than morethey treestake than they takesuccessfully and have successfully gasby emissions 10 is times what is required 250-364-1242 suppliers plant more trees and have reduced gasreduced emissions 10 times by what required
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