Submitted by the Agassiz-Harrison Historical Society
Municipality gets $24,150 in unexpected windfall as grant paid all at once
A cheque for $24,150.00—the provincial per capita grant of $14 a head for population of 1,725 was received by the municipality of Kent last week.
This is the grant for the entire year and was a pleasant surprise as it had been expected to arrive in quarterly installments.
The money will enable the municipality to operate in the black at a time of year it normally has to borrow to keep going until tax payments come in.
The municipality has made application for $1,100 as its share of basic civil defense funds for this year.
Half the money will come from the federal government, one quarter from the provincial government and one quarter from the municipality.
It is used for services, rent, travel expense and other overhead but also included money for such things as fire equipment.
The McCullough pump was bought with these funds last year.
In addition an application is being made for a special services grant on the fire truck, which cost $9,829.50.
Only one third of this would be paid at the best, and it is not expected that there will be enough money for this sort of expenditure in the Greater Vancouver Mutual Aid area allotment to pay even that much.
Several other municipalities are also seeking grants on new fire trucks.
The cab and chassis fir the new truck are reported to have been received by the factory in Quebec and work on it has begun.
Delivery is expected about the middle of next month.
Chilliwack Hospital cuts visiting as flu epidemic grows worse
The present influenza epidemic has brought about restriction of visiting hours at Chilliwack General Hospital to Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
The hospital is now operating close to 100 per cent of capacity, and doctors are concerned lest the disease be transmitted by visitors to patients suffering rom other complaints.
The type of of influenza now prevalent is considered to be more serious than normal, and patients sick with it are being kept in isolation.
Situation with regard to influenza in Agassiz is no different now from what it has been for several weeks, according to Dr. G.H. Booth.
He said that quite a number of people were sick and some had developed influenza pneumonia.
One child had been taken to hospital. Other patients had been treated in their homes.
Dr. Booth said the influenza appeared to be type B, one of the two more serious varieties of the disease, and one which is presently epidemic in Europe.
Patients have symptoms similar to those of a severe head cold, he said, but these go away in a day or two.
At this stage, he said, many patients believe they have recovered and resume normal activities, leaving themselves open to more serious illness.
The infection moves down to the lungs and in about one in twenty cases results in congestion—influenza pneumonia.
This is not the type of pneumonia that can be quickly knocked out by wonder drugs, Dr. Booth points out.