NEWS RELEASE
(Tuesday, June 13/2000)-- The Ketch Harbour Area Rate Association is having trouble communicating with one of North America's largest telecommunications companies.
Association members are upset with a plan by Worldwide Telecom to submerge a huge telecommunications cable from Europe through the middle of Ketch Harbour to the company's new $80 million facility at Sambro.
Councillor Stephen Adams has been working with members of a sub-committee of the Area Rate Association to reach a compromise on the cable issue between area residents and the international company.
Terry Flemming, of Ketch Harbour and a member of the sub-committee, said the association has been trying for weeks to make contact with officials of Worldwide Telecom-but with no success.
"We have an alternate plan for the routing of the cable..and we've done everything except dig the ditch for them, but company officials won't return our calls, " he said.
Mr. Flemming said area residents would prefer to have the cable route totally diverted away from Ketch Harbour, but realistically, the association is proposing an alternate route which would locate the cable in a different part of Ketch Harbour, away from the main navigational channel.
He said Ketch Harbour is only 22-25 feet deep in most areas and although Worldwide Telecom has told residents its cable would be trenched about five feet under the harbour bottom, most of the bottom on the proposed route is solid bedrock and has very little soil cover.
"Only one-third of the total distance of the route across the harbour has five feet of cover on the bottom. We don't understand why this cable has to go through the middle of the main navigation route....there will be no anchoring or anything. The company says they support us on this, but they haven't been returning our calls for the past month, " Mr. Flemming said.
Councillor Adams said he understands the position of the residents and is concerned over the controversy this issue has raised in the community.
The Councillor says he is confident the matter can be resolved, but there has to be communication between the sides first, and he is attempting to get both parties to meet on the issue.
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Councillor Stephen Adams
District 18 (Spryfield/Herring Cove)
(902) Cell number
Terry Flemming
Member, Ketch Harbour Area rate Association
(902) 868-2811
Don Richards
Member, Ketch Harbour Area Rate Association
(902) 868-2474
