Not in service: Telus delay means five months, no phone

For Elena Dudlettes, "Not in Service" has taken on a whole new meaning. She has lived in her new home for three months, with no telephone service from Telus – and she might have to continue to hold, for several months to come.

"I phoned them in mid-December, and told them we would move into the house mid-January," Dudlettes said. But when she moved in, they told her they couldn’t come install the service until Feb. 2.

"On February 2, a guy came to make the connection, but there was nothing to connect."

Turns out, there was no cable available for the workman to hook up to.

Shawn Hall, Telus spokesperson, said the company is responsible for all infrastructure up to the property line. From there, the developer is responsible to ensure the conduit – through which the phone line runs – is installed.

In this case, it was. But Telus’ infrastructure just couldn’t handle the load.

"What happened here is we need to install a new feeder cable into the neighbourhood," said Hall.

Dudlettes lives in Okanagan Oasis, a new subdivision on 87^th Street. Hers is the first home to be completed in the neighbourhood. Hall said it is just a matter of capacity.

"In this particular case because of the rapid growth in the area, we ran out of capacity." The company claims to be trying to solve the problem.

"We’re actually working right now to bring a new cable into the neighbourhood," Hall said. "It’s an extensive job." They have to get engineering work done, arrange the proper permits, and work with the town to install the cable. That’s why he said they are predicting it will take until June before Duddlettes gets service.

But it took several months for that message to be delivered to Duddlettes. In early February, they promised her something would happen by the end of February.

"The end of February came, and nobody showed up," she said. She has since called elected officials, other companies, and most of all, Telus. She is frustrated and unhappy about the lack of phone service, and also Internet. Now, she’s relying on a cell phone.

"It’s not the same. I can’t call my mom in Europe. I used to call her once a week. Now it’s once a month – on my sister’s phone," she said.

She thinks Telus could stand a little competition.

"This is ridiculous. In the Sahara Desert, I could see it. But in Canada, surrounded by phone lines? They don’t have any competition or challenge from any other companies, and they can do whatever they want to."

Hall understands the customer might be upset.

"This is obviously very inconvenient for the customer," he said. They have arranged to bill her cell phone only the same as her home phone would have been, with unlimited local calling. She has also been given "single point of contact," meaning a representative has been assigned to deal with her questions and concerns directly, so Duddlettes doesn’t have to speak to someone different each time she calls.

"It’s obviously not an ideal solution by hopefully it will help her get through," Hall said.

He admits recent job action by Telus might have contributed to the problem.

"More than likely, our construction work was delayed by the strike," he said. "It will be installed as quickly as we can."

So far, the Dudlettes are the only people affected by the lack of service – though she says there is another couple scheduled to move into the subdivision during the month of April.

Garbage, decomposing animal remains dumped

Animal remains included with bags of what appears to be household garbage dumped in a creek bed in rural Oliver may or may not be signs of poaching, said conservation officer Bob Hamilton.

The garbage was reported to the Ministry of Environment Monday, after a hiker stumbled upon the mess on the weekend. Hamilton had not yet had a chance to visit the site, but on Tuesday said the issue is under investigation.

"If we can determine who did this we can press charges," Hamilton said. The charges would fall under the waste management act.

About ten bags of garbage, including milk and egg cartons, were dumped on the banks of Reed Creek, off the Fairview Cawston Road. Most of the garbage was in one pile, but there were two other spots nearby where the garbage had been strewn.

The garbage included remains of animal carcasses, including bones that appeared to be a rib cage, and a substantial amount of animal hair. Across the creek, there were more remains. There was an animal skull, wrapped in a t-shirt, then a garbage bag, and put in a box; there was also a head of a deer that appeared to have antlers sawed off. This one was less decomposed than the first, with hair and flesh still visible.

Though it isn’t hunting season, Hamilton said this might not be an indicator of poaching.

"I do know that people are in the habit of dumping animal parts in the bush," he said, adding it is not technically allowed. He also said the fact that the antlers were sawed off may indicate it wasn’t a recent kill, because the animal will have already shed their antlers – though he did admit the fact that the remains were not very decomposed is puzzling but might indicate they were frozen.

Animal remains are supposed to be taken to the landfill for disposal. Hamilton said garbage near or in a creek is a health concern, and the regional district will be brought in to clean up the site.

Cherry season, worry season

Worry season starts early for cherry growers. From the time the sap starts to run and the tiny buds begin to swell with promise, cherry orchardists keep one anxious eye on their thermometers and another on the cycle of sun, wind and rain.

Frost is the first killer of a cherry season’s prospects. It glides in silently on the cold clear nights and false dawns of early spring, and can wipe out 90 per cent of a crop at the blossom stage.

The recent spate of cold weather and below-zero temperatures had growers like Greg Norton monitoring the situation closely. So far he hasn’t had to go out too many times overnight to rev up the wind machines that protect his trees when frost is imminent.

"So far so good," he said cheerfully. "There is some damage in the district but anyone who had protection—or who doesn’t have a low-lying orchard—probably doesn’t have any damage."

But there is nothing hard and fast or certain about running an orchard. In addition to orchard location, a grower’s ultimate loss or success often depends on what stage the blossom is in when the frost hits and how deep the cold was at the time.

"From my experience, it’s at the first stage—the swelling—where I get the most damage and luckily we are beyond that now. Still those little pistils are totally exposed right now and it wouldn’t take much to burn them back."

He went on to say that at stage three—the green tip—the temperature tolerance is 25 degrees Fahrenheit, while by stages six to eight—full bloom—blossoms can tolerate 29 degrees Fahrenheit without undue damage. In the post bloom or husk fall stage, the temperature vulnerability rises to 30 degrees.

Put another way, at 25 degrees with full bloom, a grower would lose 90 per cent of his crop; at 28 degrees his loss would be closer to 10 per cent. Moreover, in the former situation, there is no leniency with respect to duration: the loss is instant.

"The temperature just has to hit there—it doesn’t take long. It is not a duration thing; if it touches that temperature, you’re done. Once it gets that cold, you’re done."

But if frost causes cherry growers to worry, the vagaries of pollination make them sweat nervously. Bees get active at about six or seven degrees Celsius and work best during calm hot sunny days, but there have been precious few of those during this full bloom period.

"They aren’t flying much right now. And the other thing with pollination is you need about 12 hours of pretty warm weather once the bee visits the blossom, in order for the pollen to travel down the pollen tube. You want the pollen to be just as happy as it can be and as unrestricted as it can be.

"And if that movement gets interrupted by cold, the tube contracts and the pollen actually stops—and that’s when you get misshapen cherries. That leads to a heavy June drop, which means fertilization didn’t take place as ideally as it should have."

He noted that when a little bit of pollen gets through there is some action, but the end result is quite devastating for the grower.

"You think you have a good crop and then when you get a good heat spell in June or the end of May, the little buggers just shrivel and drop off, so in some ways pollination is a lot more cruel than frost. With frost you can see the damage right away, you don’t get your hopes up; with lousy pollination while everything looks good, it isn’t, and by June you have trouble."

Being put on hold

Telephony is a rapidly changing business. The days of the landline based on twisted copper wire are numbered as new technologies rapidly emerge. Significant numbers of people are shifting their telephone use to cellular phones as others are experimenting with internet-based phones.

You would think that those whose livelihoods are still tied to the old copper wire system would be scrambling to preserve their lucrative user-base in light of the new challenges.

As our front page story demonstrates, Telus appears to be stumbling in its provision of local service. No doubt the strike has seriously set back their efforts but the strike by their workers who have been traditionally well-paid is really part of the problem of an old monopoly that is having trouble digesting the new reality.