There appears to be lots of interest amongst council here to sit on the board of Centre Wellington Communications Inc.
Council recently created the company the optical fibre wire communications network. The optical fibre is a flexible, transparent fibre made of pure glass and not much wider than a human hair.
Fibre optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of light through an optic fibre cable. The main purpose of the new company will be to build a network that connects all of the township’s sites to the servers located in the civic centre in Elora.
The cable will have multiple strands, and since only two of those are needed for township purposes, the remaining strands will be available for lease, rent or sale to third parties.
When council considered a council representative, four councillors volunteered for the single position. Council settled the issue by placing the names in a hat and drawing one. Councillor Fred Morris was selected.
He will join Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj, chief administrative officer Michael Wood, information technology department head David Boyle, treasurer Wes Snarr and Centre Wellington Hydro general manager Doug Sherwood on the board.
There are currently a dozen township sites that have the technology and are connected to the civic centre, and another 23 need connections. The network will serve the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system that monitors water and sewer data, water towers, pump houses and also three public works garages.
The new corporation will not have offices or staff. The maintenance requirements will be contracted out.”
Currently, many township communications are served by radio or wireless systems.
The technology will allow staff to send all of its records off site. If, for example, the civic centre was hit by a disaster, all the information could be accessed elsewhere and operations could continue almost immediately. The money for the system will come from Centre Wellington Energy, the holding company that owns Centre Wellington Hydro.
When the holding company was set up, the township, which owns it, placed some of the profits of the corporation in Centre Wellington Energy. It will operate the new company.
