Category: Enterprize


TGIF-theater

The Merritt Community Theater Society, has a published business proposal  that they informally discussed this week at some meetings in the Merritt Civic Center. Interested people included economic development consultants from Kamloops and Mayor and council members.

Rich Hodgson a contact for the group said the group is looking for 5 million dollars to complete the project and have raised enough to buy the property in the Rail yard mall downtown Merritt.

The group said that they will be free from property taxes for five years as would anyone else doing new construction in the downtown. This is an economic development strategy of the city of Merritt.

Today in history: February 21, 1925

The New Yorker publishes its first issue

English: This is a logo for Teck Cominco.

English: This is a logo for Teck Cominco. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Teck, Highland Valley Mine operation near Logan Lake in BC has been under going an expansion. The mill building was the center of the upgrade as well as three domes that put some operations inside at the huge mine. A source says that the mill will be commissioned in February 2014.

Iron workers at  the project told us that they are in the process of removing the huge amount of scaffolding around the 80 foot tall mill structure.

Today in history: December 20th 1916

Micheal Chartrand , Canadian union leader born. (d 2010)

Twinning of the pipeline from Edmonton

The city of Merritt has the line that Kinder Morgan operates through its subsidiary Trans Mountain Pipeline running by here to Burnaby. If fact it goes right by the airstrip, Saunders Field. The pumping station at Kingsvale required an employee to be here at one time. There is no local contact now however there is pride in the general sence to have had them and for the 60 years they have operated without major problems in the valley  bringing energy to the lower mainland.

The  news letter they posted recently out lines their application and its vastness we hope that people are not deterred by its complexity and will look at it because now is the time they will have voice. To have that voice they need points to communicate concerns that are valid, we hope that people other then press , lawyers or professionals will be able to take the non jargon documents and voice there concerns: Below is their announcement.

The company proposes to build  a pipeline in segments that complete a twinning (or “looping”) of the pipeline in Alberta and BC with about987 km of new buried pipeline.New and modified facilities, including pump stations and tanks.Three new berths at the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby, BC, each capable of handling Aframax class vessels.

This morning, Trans Mountain Pipelines filed a Facilities Application with the National Energy Board (NEB) for the proposed Trans Mountain Expansion Project. This application filing follows over a year and a half of engagement with pipeline and marinecommunities, a detailed environmental and socio-economic assessment, route assessments, and other various marine and terrestrial risk analyses and studies. This filing is a significant milestone in the development of this project and another step in the on-going engagement we will be having within your community.

When printed, the Application is over 15,000 pages and up to two metres high when stacked end on end. Please visit our Application website at http://application.transmountain.com.

The NEB will hold its own public engagement process, including a hearing on the Application before it makes a decision on the proposed Project. The hearing will allow people or groups who have been granted permission to participate by the NEB a chance to raise issues, present evidence, test evidence, and provide their input. Information on how to participate in this process can be found here: http://www.neb-one.gc.ca/clf-nsi/rthnb/pblcprtcptn/pblchrng/pblchrng-eng.html

We invite you to visit our website to see how we have addressed community interests along the pipeline and marine corridors. Over the coming months we will be approaching stakeholders to consult on specific elements within the application. We will also be returning to communities where we have visited before in our previous engagements to discuss the application and proposals contained within.

From the Trans Mountain Expansion Project, we wish you the best this holiday season and look forward to continuing our dialogue with you and your community in 2014.

Sincerely,
The Trans Mountain Expansion Project Team

Editors note: we respect all views that are brought in good faith. To carry out that we suggest that you look at the informationin in the application.   In our view we support the application as  we think our local environment would benefit by the effect of a twin pipeline with new pumping stations and technology being so close to the existing line by increasing scrutiny and attention, we think that the use of double hulled ships will be safer then reliance on forgien flags in international waters supplying the demand of  the oil market.

Today in history: December 18th 218

Second Punic war Hannibal defeats the Romans at the battle of Trebia

Country Christmas

Christmas in the post-War United States

Christmas in the post-War United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Merritt is a very active place here after November 27th the countdown to Christmas starts then and a parade and midnight madness event starts it off. The local FM station has contests for home town shopping, and merchants try to establish their business success for the next year around the season. The local library is offering a 1000 dollars  in a contest that ends on November 26th.  The efforts that go into Christmas here are exceptional and sometimes quite heart warming.

The digital money company swag bucks are offering a Christmas preview sale for online shopping that ends on November 26th 20% off and 8 swag bucks ( 8 cents or eight percent) for every dollar spent on-line at Macy’s. The good will of the season is out there and is a significant value even for those involved in Christmas selling.

Q 101 is offering a draw for 1500 dollars in a home town shopping spree, ending December 9th..

The scenery can be very homey with snow-covered hills and a hush of the past looking to a new year.

http://www.venturevancouver.com/merritt-country-music-capital-of-canada

Peace on earth good will to mankind;  without argument.

For those needing hope the season is quite under girding and lasting.

Today in history: November 13th 1901

The 1901 Caister lifeboat disaster.

$30.000.00 licence

This morning we talked to a local wood cutter KIm Robinson. We said Archie **** is looking to have a tree fallen in his front yard on Parker drive. ” Archie said that he thought it would be thousands of dollars and was concerned that the pitch wood would be hard to dispose of from the Ponderosa pine that dominates his front yard in front of his house.

Kim showed us his fellers licence and said that it was needed to fall trees for money. He estimated that it cost 30 k to acquire a licence and that inspections are strict and frequent when he uses it to fall snags on the perimeters of cut blocks. “WCB have a real program to check your competence I know of fellers  sited for doing some back cuts and it was on their record for some time.

The estimate is from Kim an experienced  woodsman and he says that you can no longer be grandfathered.

Archie also though there may be a minister around that does that.

Here is the site of the  org that gives the credentials The BC forest safety council: http://www.bcforestsafe.org/training/faller_certification.html

Editors note: Any one including a minister that does any kind of work for you and is not an employee of a corporation no matter how small is a sole proprietor and if they do not have Workers Compensation Proprietors optional coverage they can recover damages for anything that happens from your assets were you are negligent of diligence.Some house insurance packages will cover you for 3rd party workers but you better know before hand.

Today in history: October 30 1929

The Stuttgart cable car is constructed in Stuttgart Germany

ten cents a cup

The local Starbucks is one of the outlets that are participating in a 10 cent discount of coffee with your own cup. Yep fill up your own cup and you will keep a dime and one less paper cup goes to the landfill.


Watch for deer when going up Voght to coffee houses in the early AM!
Today in history: October 8th 1982

The musical Cats opens on broadway and runs  for 18 years.

E85

 Middleton Petroluem Services tech reading shell station for  the availability of e 85 fuel.

Middleton petroleum Services tech reading shell station for the availability of e 85 fuel.

The local shell station at the top of the hill on Voght street is purging the fuel tanks getting ready for an ethanol upgrade. The technician doing the purge says that ethanol is a cleaner so if they don’t purge the tank of bottom debris then the ethanol will do it and their filters will plug up.

E 85 fuel is up to 85 percent denatured ethanol fuel and 15 percent gasoline. it is often used by flex-fuel vehicles and is popular in corn-growing states in the US midwest.

Other alternatives to gasoline include diesel fuel making sure you have summer grade of winter (stove oil) grade fuel at the right times can be a problem and the cash out lay is greater for a diesel equipped ca;r but users say the economy is good over time.

There is a marked loss in gas mileage depending on the amount of ethanol in the gas, E85 may have less than half ethanol at times for a listing of ethanol free stations go to: http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=BC

Bio fuels are a good thing however the estimate that at 20 percent use of bio fuels would start to cut into the food supply still seem to ring true. Choices and odd man out are still attractive and are often tied to price and what  the person will pay for their preferences.

Update: Today October 1st saw fuel being delivered to the local shell, no e 85. A source says that there is 10 percent ethanol in the regular brand and none in the premium brand. There is a 9 cent price spread between them.

The 10 percent ethanol is said to be the same across the province for Shell stations.

Today in history: September 24 th 1948

The Honda Motor Company is founded.

TGIF

Merit of Merritt

Its good that it is friday….

There is a Job fair at the Merritt Civic Center September 11 and 12th, sponsored by Work BC and other government. There is no cost for business/ vendors

Today in history: September 6th 1997

The funeral of the Princess of Wales, Lady Diana.

Fish stocking

The non profit society that stocks the lakes with trout fry is about Merritt today. A worker said ” we are stocking Salmon Lake today”. Salmon lake is on the historic douglas lake Cattle company ranch and has a dock at its store and cabin facility there.

The Society is funded by a portion of all the fishing licences sold in British Columbia.

Today in history: September 5th 1969

United States Army LT William Calley charged with the murder of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai.

TGIF- Merritt Laundry

English: Flag of the city of Melbourne, in Aus...

English: Flag of the city of Melbourne, in Australia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Chinese laundry on Voght street is being gutted after siting dormant for decades the Chinese laundry that was once next to the New York Kitchen, Chinese restaurant, and operated by the Chin family was sold and is being renovated into apartments. the cinder block walls are solid according to sources on site . The roof and insides including to electric meters and a number of panels have been wreaked ant are gone to the dump.The Chin family once owned a large piece of land in that area of Voght street. Randy Chin operated Beaver insulation in the old Canadian Pacific warehouse next to the Merritt Library that now occupies the land which held the train station untill the 1980’s.A chin family member at the site today ( now an employee of BC Hydro said the family is all out of Merritt except Randy, but the original business’s are disposed and the family is in Vancouver. Except him in Kamloops.The Toy family dry goods from 1927 has been renovated and remains  near to the chinese operations. The store is planned for  antique sales.Today in history: August 30th 1835

The City of Melbourne is established.

Premium for regular price

The Petro Canada was offering premium gasoline at regular price this week as they were out of the regular grade of gas.

Premium gas was going for one dollar and forty five cents a liter. The Petro Can is at the corner of Voght and Belshaw avenue.

Today the price is back to normal and regular gas is available.

The 6 cent spread in price is said to be worth it in  lots of applications and according to a motorcycle enthusiast  especially in the performance of motorcycles. The cost additional cost on a fill up would be something over a dollar.

Today in history: August 21 1961

Please MIster Postman is released and becomes the first Number One Hit.

136.8

The Shell Station on the top of the hill on Voght Street is selling gas at 1/10th of a cent less than the competitors about. The Petro Canada across the street remains at 136.9 and the worker there says that it does not seem to make a difference.
The side of the sign at the shell station that faces the pumps says 136.9.

Today in History: August 13 1913

Otto Witte, an acrobat is said to have been crowned King of Albania.