VIRDEN MAINLINE MOTORS

Virden
Empire-Advance
Back to school photos... page 18
Canada Post Contract
No. 40069240
SERVING THE VIRDEN, MANITOBA AREA SINCE 1885
Empire,
Empire, Vol.
Vol. 106,
104, No.
No.14
67
Friday, September 9, 2011
includes tax
Advance, Vol. 126, No. 19
Tanker fire delays TransCanada traffic
Fire Chief Brad Yochim reported that “At 4:27 p.m. on September 6, Elkhorn Fire was dispatched to a fuel tanker on fire on #1 Highway about four miles east
of Elkhorn. Virden Fire also responded and Moosomin Fire was called to assist with their water tanker. The driver of the truck was able ot escape uninjured
before the fire department arrived. The truck was carrying 50,000 litres of diesel fuel, of which about 25,000 litres burnt off. The fire department was able to
keep the rear trailer cool so that it was not consumed by the fire. The fire was too hot to extinguish so it was allowed to burn itself out which took about seven
hours. Traffic was closed in both directions while the fire was burning. Manitoba Conservation was on scene and took over the cleanup operation. A total of
10 fire apparatus were on scene along with 22 firefighters.” Photo courtesy of Brad Yochim, Fire Chief Wallace District Fire Department
Fibre enhances school division
By Tori Elliott
With the installation of
fibre optics to enhance their
network, the teachers and
students of Fort La Bosse
School Division (FLBSD)
will be enjoying the benefits
of state of the art connectivity as they return to school
this fall.
A project first introduced
last fall as a partnership
between FLBSD and local
internet service provider RFNow Inc, the installation of
the fibre optic cables to the
schools is very exciting, says
Jacy Whyte, Vice President
of Marketing with RFNow.
Though installation of the
fibres is not quite completed
throughout the entire school
division, students and teachers in five of the division’s
eight schools will have access to the system in the first
week of the school year.
"We really wanted the
installation to be complete
in Virden before the kids
went back to school, and
we pushed for it to happen"
says Whyte. As such, each
of Virden’s four schools, as
well as Oak Lake School,
are equipped and ready to
go just in time for the return
of their students, while the
connections to Elkhorn,
Kola and Reston schools
are in progress and will be
completed this fall.
Essentially, the fibre optic
technology will beef up the
division’s connectivity within their own network and
to the internet. Says Mike
Bugg, Business Development Manager for RFNow,
"Currently, their network
connects to the internet at 45
megabits per second (Mbps),
with this upgrade this connection will more than double to 100 Mbps. Between
the schools, the system will
be 100 times faster than current, which will allow them
to centrally locate more of
their infrastructure."
As impressive as that
sounds, what are the specific
benefits of this new technology?
"The biggest advantage
is the increased bandwidth,"
says Kent Reid, Secretary
Treasurer for FLBSD. "Out
network won’t be as restrictive. Before, our system
didn’t have the capacity to
handle an entire classroom of
students working with video
files at once. Under the new
network that shouldn’t be a
problem."
In fact, to date the connection speed provided by the
fibre optics is much higher
than they need, says Bugg,
meaning that students and
teachers should never again
suffer a slow internet connection no matter what the on-
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line activities in their school.
"The fibres will make the
whole system operate much
faster and the division will
see improved performance
on the internet," he says.
The new connection will
also allow remote teaching
through the use of video
without impacting the basic
speed of internet browsing,
explains Bugg. "We’re really
getting into the use of technology to deliver curriculum
and technology changes
everyday. This allows us to
keep up with those changes
and to offer course content
that wouldn’t necessarily be
available," says Reid.
In addition, the phone
system will utilize the fibre
optics which will allow
added functionality such as
conference calling without
ever having to leave the
division’s network as well
as the luxury of reducing the
need for extra phone lines,
says Bugg. "It is significantly
more cost effective; you get
more with less, which is
always a concern in education," he explains.
Regarding the cost effectiveness of the installation
of the new connection, Reid
explains that it is because of
the school division’s "tremendous partnership" with
RFNow Inc. over the past
decade that "we’ve had all
of our schools interconnected for a fraction of what
it would cost all other divisions to do it." A project
with a commercial value of
over a million dollars, the
partnership between the two
allowed FLBSD to acquire
the technology for signifi cantly less than half of that,
says Bugg.
As beneficial as the fibre
optic technology is for the
continued on page 2
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Virden Empire-Advance, September 9, 2011
2
CAO for R.M. of Wallace
R.M. of Wallace Reeve Don Neufeld (left) welcomes
Floyd Buhler to the position of CAO on September 8.
Photo/Submitted
By Anne Davison
Recently hired Chief
Administrative Officer
(CAO) for the R.M. of
Wallace, Floyd Buhler,
has moved with his wife
Paige and their one-year-
old daughter, to become
Virden residents.
From Lynn Lake,
where he last worked, it
was a 14-hour move for
the new parents. The move
to Virden, brings them
closer to Paige’s family
living in the Birtle area.
Born in Thompson and
raised in Winnipeg since
the age of 10, Buhler was
educated in Winnipeg at
the University of Manitoba. He has a B.A. majoring
in economics.
Employment at the
U. of M. from 2006 to
2010, provided valuable
work experience in financial administration, at
the Registrar’s office and
subsequently as a student
advisor with the Faculty of
Kinesiology.
Buhler most recently
served as the Economic
Development Officer and
then CAO for the Town of
Lynn Lake.
When the couple
moved to the northern
town they discovered
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there was no high speed
internet access, which was
a great hindrance to his administrative work there, so
the Buhlers proceeded to
start a high speed internet
company. The town had
received a federal grant to
install the infrastructure,
but without expertise or
initiative, no one had put
it to use.
Wallace’s new CAO
acknowledges the importance of the municipal act
and his role in working
with council, within that
framework. The role of the
CAO is financial administration as well as project
management, carrying out
council’s decisions.
He sees growth opportunity for the municipality with the new water
infrastructure, recognizing
that some issues need to be
ironed out.
Buhler has seen Lynn
Lake dwindle from 3500
to a mere 800 rate payers. Coming from a mining town that has gone
through an industry collapse, Buhler noted that
Wallace in contrast has
“a stable economic environment, with oil and
farming.” This stability
allows for more accuracy
in planning and budgeting,
he says.
Recognizing there are
challenges in the road infrastructure, he hopes the
R.M. can find new strategies to deal with that.
Buhler nods approvingly of the work done
to re-design and update
Wallace’s web page (not
yet complete), and says,
“Technology will be a
focus of my management
Fibres enhance
continued from page 1
school division, the
connection is just as advantageous for RFNow
Inc. "It’s a win/win,"
says Whyte, explaining
that laying the fibres for
FLBSD gave them the
opportunity to affordably reach surrounding
communities with their
technology. "We plan
to eventually offer the
same connection for
commercial and then
residential use in the
future."
Concerning the technology itself, Bugg
explains that though
fibre optics have been
around for many years,
significant advances
have been made over
the last decade, making
it more economically
affordable. "It’s a technological upgrade that
is a necessary step; it
Once connected, the fibre optics in this cable will amp
up the high speed internet service in the schools of the
For La Bosse School Division. Photo/Tori Elliott
has to be done."
"This is really exciting not only for the
school division and
RFNow, but for the
community as well,"
explains Whyte. "There
is no other community
in rural Manitoba that
can say they have access to this kind of tech-
are proud to acknowledge and recognize:
Penn
West
Exploration
as our first oilfield client to recycle
it’s plastic oilfield materials in the
Province of Manitoba on May 18, 2011.
This recycling process demonstrates
Penn West’s commitment to the
environment and its dedication to
becoming an environmentally conscious
company. We look forward to a long
and “green” relationship with
Penn West Exploration.
style.” He sees it as a
tool to facilitate timely,
accurate communication
between the public, the
office and the councillors,
saying, “small communication incidents can turn
into large catastrophes.”
Both Buhlers are community minded and keenly competitive, having
coached basketball and
volleyball. Paige grew
up with Virden teams as
rivals.
“I’m excited about living here,” Buhler says of
the recent move to Virden,
commenting on the abundance of restaurants and
food stores, “It’s a good
mix of small town and big
town.”
Avid golfers, the family is looking forward to a
summer in southwestern
Manitoba.
•
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Post flood infrastructure rebuilding
Child care benefit of $100 /month for all children 6-12 years
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nological opportunity."
The same could be said
for a school division.
S a y s R e i d , " We ’ r e
looked at as leaders in
the school divisions and
this technology, which
amps up our internal
system and network,
is certainly one of the
reasons why."