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6 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday April 9 ,1999 OPINION Pages of the Past E nergy-efficient hom es caused concern 40 years ago In one breath Tuesday night, J. M. Milne, Chairman of the Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital Board of Governors, was talking about making money. In another he was talking about spending it. No sooner had the speaker announced to nearly 30 people at the annual meeting that the Board's bank loan had been reduced by $284,000 to $120,000 and that the Board's operations for 1958 - while resulting in a deficit of $44,950 - were well ahead of the previous year, than he further announced an expansion program will commence before the year is out. Mr. Milne said the Board's architects have been preparing detailed plans for an expansion of the existing 120-bed hospital for the past month. He declined to state how many beds the new wing will contain nor how much the project will cost. The Chairman said in the past weeks it has once again become necessary, due to crowded conditions, to put beds in the hospital corridors. During the last two months, he said the surgical and m edical floors have had 95 percent occupancy. - The Oakville Record-Star, April 9,1959 30 years ago An upcoming retirement in the town clerk's office is a good chance to reduce the overly-large town staff, Councillor Laurie M annell said Tuesday night. He was commenting during a hassle over a staff proposal concerning filling the vacancy which will be created by retirement of town clerk Sheldon Featherstone. Council finally decided by 5-4 vote to discuss the matter at a closed committee of the whole meeting on Monday. Mannell said that when Oakville amalgamated with T rafalgar Township every m unicipal employee was promised a job with the result that jobs were created that were not needed. He said he approves the appointment of deputy - clerk D. W. Brown to clerk but couldn't see the need fori another deputy-clerk. - Daily Journal-Record, April 9, 1969 20 years ago Ford Canada hope to avoid shutdown of its car, van and truck assembly plants in Oakville this week are operating on reduced shifts from day-to-day, Ford spokesman Tony Fredo said yesterday. Ford is being affected by an American truck drivers strike which is halting the delivery of car parts across the border. Mr. Fredo said the reduced shifts had helped ease the gradual exhaustion of inventory assembly parts. For each day Ford operates on four-hour shifts, the com pany w ill lose h a lf their normal production or 400 cars and vans and 256 trucks daily. - The Oakville Journal Record, April 9, 1979 10 years ago Forty disgruntled owners of energy efficient R-2000 homes in Wedgewood Creek East, will soon have a second hydro meter installed-and paid for by the builder, FRAM Building Group-so their homes' energy consumption and efficiency can be monitored over the next year by FRAM and Oakville Hydro. The residents feel their hydro bills are far more than they expected-or were led to expect from the energy efficient R-2000 homes, even though their heating systems are electrical, not gas. They also say that despite big hydro bills, their houses are cold or hard to head in parts. -Oakville Beaver, April 12, 1989 □ □ □ Taken fro m the a rch ive s o f th e O akv ille Beaver includ ing stories from The O akville Record-Star, The O a k v ille - T ra fa lg a r J o u rn a l, th e O a k v ille J o u rn a l Record and the O akville Beaver. X LIKE MILLENNIA FOR A GIRL, AND 'MILLENNIO' FOR A BOY- WHAT DO YOU THINK? X T H I N KWE SHOULD WAIT FOR THE TEST RESULTS FIRST" Editorials Phone fun Wfien they first came into common use, cellular phones were marketed as an essential business tool for those who needed to keep in touch with their offices or clients. And when used in this fashion, cell phones have been invaluable. They keep salespeople selling instead of searching for phones and now, faxes and all other forms of portable communication are possible. Forget about the home office, how about the mobile office? The advent of cell phones came concurrently with the deregulation of the phone industry. The telephone market became a highly-competitive business. For buyers phone services it became a case of getting the best deal, regardless of the carrier. But as with all technology, there is a downside to all this communication and ironically, what may be the most important call of your life, may not be able to save you. That reality has been driven home by the Halton Regional Police who have discovered some alarming problems with communication technology. The difficulty comes when people are in distress and call the 9-1-1 emergency number for assistance. If you have a cell phone or use a non-Bell earner and collapse, the operator can trace the call but it will only show the earner's address, not the residence. If you call from a standard phone, the emergency service could get to you, possibly saving your life. In one instance, Halton Police were called about an armed robbery in progress at an Oakville restaurant by a woman who called 9-1-1 then dropped the phone. But the shop owner's phone service wasn't set up for call tracing. The result was the police had no idea where the woman had made the call. The message is clear...if you use a phone service re-seller, check out how their system can accommodate 9-1-1 tracing...it could be the most important call you make. If you have a cellphone on use a non-Bell carrier and collapse, the operator can trace the call but it will only show the carrier's address, not the residence. Pssssssssssst,.. ...more laurels for Tim Hortons senior chairman and co-founder, Ron J o yc e ...he was o ffic ia lly honoured W ednesday night by being inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame...we wonder what Tim Horton would make of it all...... □ □ □ ...you've got to give the Ontario Casino Corporation an A+ for theatrics during its introduction of 'craps' to its three facilities...at Casino Niagara, the facility was changed into King Richard II's Court for W ednesday's launch of the game...included in the 'cast' were R ichard's Queen, archers, trumpeters, court jesters and lute p layers who brought a little o f the 14th century to the gaming floor...talk about Las Vegas north..... □ □ □ ...sign on back of van ..Honk if you know Bob.....Bob who? Psssssst... is « compendium of observations around Oakville and we're open to contributions from the public at large too. Just fax us at 337-5567 attention to Pssssssssssst... 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