Times Advocate, 1995-03-22, Page 9Page 8
Times -Advocate, March 22, 1995 LiVTJ"Y
_COMMU
•
What are you
doing to put in
time during the
two -weeks of the
March Break?
Amy Turkheim- Zurich
"Playing with my dog."
Jeff Thiel - Zurich
"Playing with Amy and his
dog."
Andrew Roethel - Grand Bend
"Hanging around Grand Bend."
Lara Spring - Exeter
"Going to my grandma's in
London."
Jon Rutledge - Grand Bend
"Come up to the lake and go for
a walk."
Jody Spring - Exeter
"Going to Grandma and
Grandpa's for a sleepover."
Ryan Roethel - Grand Bend
"I'm going to go to Karate
class."
Jeremy Straw - Exeter
"Working at Canadian Tire
repairing bikes and skiing at
Collingwood."
Quadro Communications Cooperative holds annual meeting
By Brian Innes
ST. MARYS - Nearly 300 people
attended the inaugural meeting of
the Quadro Communications Coop-
erative Incorporated at the St. Mar-
ys•Arena Wednesday.
The meeting was brought to order
by the chairman of the Quadro
steering committee chairperson
John McIntosh, dairy farmer from
Downie Township.
He welcomed people to this
meeting and gave a brief history of
the formation of this new telephone
co-operative.
He personally recognized the
work done by retiring commission-
ers of the Blanshard Mutual Tele-
phone Company. These commis-
sioners include David Marshall,
Wilfred Riddell, Jim Evans, Perry
Robinson and Calvin Innes.
Hugh Munro of Uniondale
chaired the business portion of the
meeting, Jim DeWeerd, comptrol-
ler of the telephone company, was
secretary, and Bev Skinner gave the
General Manager's report.
GM's report
Skinner reported that there were
1,648 new members of the co-
operative and that the company had
some 3,286 customers, 3,411 of
whom had private telephone lines
and 294 of whom had two party tel-
ephone lines, serving four exchang-
es namely, Kirkton, Uniondale, Se-
bringville and Granton, covering an
area of 1,050 square kilometres.
Skinner said Quadro was a local
exchange carrier which has signed
interconnection agreements with
Bell Canada and Unitel for them to
provide long distance service. He
went on to say that all agreements
involving Quadro must comply
with the Canadian Radio and Tele-
vision Commission (CRTC).
Overall, the goal of Quadro,
Skinner reported, is to continue
providing first class service to its
customers and to make private lines
available for all customers. A new
auditor, Doan Raymond Chartered
Accountants of London, was ap-
pointed for the telephone company.
Quadro will not be required to have
the same auditing firm as Blan-
shard Township, as was the situa-
tion when the Blanshard Municipal
Telephone System was operating.
Election of Directors
Chairman Munro asked General
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Manager Skinner to conduct the
election of directors portion of the
meeting. He reported that March 1,
1995 had been the cut-off date for
those individuals who wished to
seek election to the Board.
Skinner mentioned that only one
person for the Granton exchange,
Wilfred Riddell, one person for the
Western Region of the company,
Mr. Jim Evans, and one person for
the Sebringville exchange, Henry
Wydeven, had duly signed the ap-
propriate nomination papers and
asked for a motion to have these in-
dividuals acclaimed to the new
cooperative.
For the Western region, for the
Uniondale exchange, and for the
Kirkton exchange more than one
person had been nominated necessi-
tating election by ballot for these
.positions.
Contesting the Kirkton exchange
were David Marshall and Bill Den-
ham. Contesting the Uniondale ex-
change were Perry Robinson and
Ed Baynham. Contesting the West-
ern Region position were Jim
Aitcheson, Mike Berta, Matt Crow-
ley and Ron King.
Each of the contestants were
asked to give a two -minute speech
as to why they wished to serve on
the board of directors of this new
.,telephone cooperative.
When the ballots were counted
David Marshall, Perry Robinson
and Jim Aitcheson were elected.
New logo designed by employee
During the counting of the ballots
interlude, Anne Hodginson, report-
ed on the new logo for Quadro. She
stated that Quadro employee, Anne
Switzer designed the winning logo.
During the question period, it
was asked why the name Quadro
was selected. John McIntosh re-
sponded that quad stands for the
four telephone exchanges and that
quadro stands for commercial and
residentialas one entity.
Although some 300 members
were present at the inaugural meet-
ing of the Quadro Communications
Cooperative Incorporated, this total
represented less than one-quarter of
the eligible members, and only 10
percent of total quadro customers.
Let's hope that the next annual
meeting is as well as or better ,at�
tended, because the strength of any
cooperative movement is only as
good as the members make it.
A brief history of the local telephone company
ST. MARYS - It seems that eve-
ry generation, our local telephone
company goes through some
changes.
At the turn of the century, some
90 years ago, part of the commu-
nity was served by a private tele-
phone company which served its
customers well, until a severe ice
storm brought down the lines.
Unable to pay for the repairs
and continued service, local resi-
dents and area farmers took out
debentures to re-establish tele-
phone service. The newly created
Blanshard Municipal Telephone
System was established in 1923
by a by-law of the Township of
Blanshard. The assets of this new
system were vested by the Blan-
shard Township council, essential-
ly in trust for the then subscribers
of the telephone system.
The debentures issued to pay for
this new system were completely
paid off in 1949 and the company
operated with the existing ex-
changes until 1958, when users
asked for better service and more
modern and adequate equipment.
Up to that time it was not uncom-
mon to have 12 to 14 users per tel-
ephone line.
Also in 1958, the number of tele-
phone commissioners was in-
creased from three to five, in an at-
tempt to better represent the
various telephone exchanges in the
system. In 1960, debentures were
issued again to establish new ex-
changes, beginning with the Se-
bringville exchange. In 1971 de-
bentures were issued again to
bring the Uniondale exchange up
to date. All debentures on these
projects were paid off in 1991 and
since that time the Blanshard Mu-
nicipal Telephone System has
been debt free.
Between 1992 and 1994 nearly
$3 million was spent by, the com-
pany to upgrade the whole system
with the latest technology.
Until the spring of 1994 Munici-
pal telephone companies in Onta-
rio were regulated by the Ontario
Telephone Commission. As the
result of a decision rendered by
the Supreme Court of Canada, in
April 1994, telecommunication
carriers, which Blanshard Munici-
pal was deemed to be, were now
to be subject of the legislative re-
sponsibility of the Parliament of
Canada, not the various provincial
legislatures.
The business operations of tele-
phone companies now fell under
the regulatory auspices of the Ca-
nadian Radio and Television Com-
mission.
In June 1994 a public meeting
was sponsored by the Blanshard
Telephone company to inform us-
ers of the system of the impending
changes. As the then municipal
system was not a corporation un-
der the laws of the federal govern-
ment, it was believed that changes
needed to be made to bring the
system into compliance with feder-
al legislation, hence the concept of
a co-operative was brought for-
ward for consideration and later
the concept was adopted by the
Commissioners of the Blanshard
Telephone system.
The conversion to a co-operative
invr tved the system becoming a
trustee of the Blanshard Township
an° then the council transferring
the assets and liabilities of the tele-
phone company to the newly creat-
ed co-operative by the end of
1994.
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