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every month in 2015 as the Trail Times commemorates 120 years serving the Greater Trail community with stories, shared memories and reprints of historic front pages
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on site and of those, around 77 per cent are from the local community. We have maintained that level throughout the project.” Mark Miller, business agent at the Local 2300 Carpenter's Union in Castlegar, says at the height of construction, there were nearly 100 local carpenters employed daily. “There were about 80 to 90 local carpenters on site a day,” he said. “For the Kootenays, that is huge. I have no stats for how many carpenters are in the Kootenays, but See PROJECT, Page 2
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much. “Before, there was a lot of hauling on the road and rock was being removed. Now, it is all about testing stop locks, assembly of various units and all the electrical and mechanical work inside the powerhouse.” Now that the finishing touches are being put on the project, Repin says there are less workers on site, but planners are making sure to employ a high number of locals. “A year ago, we were up to 400 workers on the project,” she said. “Now, we've got about 150 workers
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After four years in the making, the Waneta Dam expansion project is just a few months from completion. The $900 million-project began in January, 2011 and employed 400 workers daily at its peak during the course of construction. Audrey Repin, director of stakeholder and external relations with the Columbia Power Corporation, says the last year has seen the completion of nearly all external aspects of construction.
Wednesday, the project took another step with synchronizing the turbine units with the transmission lines. “It’s all part of moving forward towards our finishing date,” said Repin. “We are heading into the final stretch and our goal is to have substantial completion by this spring,” she said, adding that a more concrete finishing date will be in place in a couple of months. “Now, we are focusing on the inside. If you take a look at the site, you won't be able to see very
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TRAIL CREEK
BY LIZ BEVAN
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Waneta Dam project nears finish line
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Rossland's Riley Albo,17, was still in grade school the last time gas was consistently under $1 per litre in the Trail area. The price at the downtown station dropped under the dollar threshold earlier this week.
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The surge in home-based Internet usage could soon translate into dollars on your monthly utility bill – so users beware. Streaming Netflix, Skyping with the grandkids, chatting on Facebook, or downloading high definition games are popular past times that chomp up data on home service plans, which means overage charges are on the horizon. While Telus doesn't currently enforce thresholds on home Internet packages in the Greater Trail area, the company is running a pilot project in Prince George for “select” customers that includes charges for usage exceeding their Internet plan's monthly data allowance. “Telus is very cognizant that most people don't know how much data they are using,” said Shawn Hall, from Telus media relations. “So one of the things we are doing in this pilot project is putting how much people are using on the monthly bill so they have that information before any changes,” he explained. “But most customers find their usage is well within the threshold of their plan.” Telus maintains that customers who use their Internet service for email or to share a few photos shouldn't pay as much as another who downloads hundreds of gigabytes for games or videos. Additional usage charges begin in the zeroto-50 GB range at $5, and skyrocket to $75 for using 350 GB or more. The pilot program is looking at a way that would be fair and equitable for charging for thresholds, Hall added. See HOME, Page 3
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