Bill sat on the padded lawn chair, staring out across the Atlantic Ocean. He sipped on a scotch and puffed on a 6 inch Cuban cigar, as he watched Jarge flying and diving with the other seagulls.
Matty was busy answering emails, so Bill decided to sneak away and spend a few minutes to himself.
For the past three weeks Bill and Matty and many of the residents of Tuckamore Bay, had been working diligently putting together and executing a plan of attack for the Bay. It had been a massive undertaking and ended up involving far more people than either Bill or Matty had anticipated, since there was so much work that had to be done, before the first snows crippled the Bay's ability to get infrastructure in place.
For some, life had not changed much. They still were working at their outside jobs, until the lat possible day, so that projects would be in place for them, when they went on the Bay's payroll, although most all had already informed their jobs that their tenure with the company was coming to an end.
Fortunately for Bill, both Cindy Rideout and Joyce Dove had experience in the world of accounting, including payroll and such, so both were hired immediately as the accounting team for the village.
Cindy would look after the accounts payable and accounts receivable, while Joyce would look after payroll and human resources, a job she had when the fish plant had been open. Cindy was a university trained accountant and had been doing the books for Tucker's General Store for a few years, as well as the income taxes for most people of the village.
Cindy Rideout (Wike's wife)
Both were temporarily set up in an office in the fish plant, while renovations and an expansion was being done at the community center.
A second floor was being added to the community center, which would house the offices of Tuckamore Bay Ltd. The Mayor's office and Village Planner's office would stay on the first floor.
Clayton Rideout accepted the job as manager of the fish plant, once again, but his first job was to strip down the plant, with the help of Jr. Tucker and Wike Rideout, who both quit their jobs at the St. Anthony fish plant.
Clayton would then manage the new welding/fabrication shop, with his son and Jr. as his assistants and welding supervisors.
Fortunately, the fish plant in St. Anthony inspected the Tuckamore Bay plant and agreed to purchase all the equipment in the plant, whether it worked or not. They would revamp what they could and scrap the rest down for parts for their own machinery. Clayton agreed to a sum of $100 thousand dollars for all the equipment. The money would be immediately reinvested in new equipment for the welding/fabrication shop.
Clayton, Wike and Jr. came up with a list of equipment they felt they would need to get the fabrication shop up and running. They had some lines on auctions, but Bill informed them that he wanted all new equipment for the shop, including the welding units, a forger and even a small bake oven and auto powder coating unit to pain the finished product.
Bill had them fly to St. Johns and order all the equipment that they need. They set up a supplier in Corner Brook to supply welding wire and all the accessories that they would need in the future.
While waiting for the new equipment to arrive, the interior of the plant was laid out to accept the new welding and fabrication equipment. Occupational Health and Safety examined the plant and plans and made suggestions for the ventilation of the new welding shop. A new central ventilation system would be added to the plant as well as individual venting on each work station.
Clayton, Wike and Jr. hired six people from the Bay to work and train in the new facility and all took courses, as outlined by OHS, including first aid and CPR.
One of the biggest problems facing the success of Tuckamore Bay was the ability to converse with the outside world through the internet and phone service. Even though the Bay had always had dial up service for the internet and rotary telephone service, it was obvious that high speed internet was necessary as well as cell phone service.
The old systems were sketchy, at best and often prone to failure during the high winds that frequented the Bay.
While Bill and Matty had vacationed in St. John's, they had used much of their second week putting in place the groundwork for cable, internet and cell phone capabilities.
Rogers Media had checked the area for the possibility of bringing in underground fibre optics for cable and internet, but the logistics proved to be far too expensive, so an agreement was reached with Newfoundland Power to use their existing electric system to run their fibre optics.
NL Power agree, as long as the Bay shared the expense of replacing some of the deteriorating wooden poles with steel structures. An agreement was drawn up and both companies began work, so it would be finished before the snows set in.
There was some concern about the fact that NL Power had been informed of the possibility of discontinuing service to The Bay at the end of 2012, but Bill and Matty informed them that would never happen. NL Power agreed to leave the poles, even after 2021, as long as some electrical services were being supplied and Rogers Media was paying a premium for use of the poles.
Tuckamore Bay Ltd. shared the initial cost, with Rogers, of having all the homes and businesses in the village hooked into the high speed cable and Bill supplied every household and business with an Apple MacBook Pro. Further additions, such as additional computers and iPads would be the responsibility of the individuals.
Bill and Tanya offered basic courses on computers twice a week, at the community center, for those not familiar with the basic operations of a computer. TBL (Tuckamore Bay Ltd.) also hired 4 of the teenagers of the village to provide personal home training and troubleshooting for the bay.
As for cell phone, that was another story altogether. TBL could not get any provider to set up a cell tower at their expense, even if all the cell phones used them as their provider.
In the end, it was Apple that came to the rescue. They agreed to supply the village with 200 phones, if Tuckamore Bay exclusively used their products and allowed advertising on our website. They also agreed to share cost on the cell tower which was to be set up at a strategic point about a mile or so from the Bay and it was to have the Apple logo, somewhere on the tower.
Since the cell phone service was all provided to TBL and all cell phones registered under the company, there was a cut rate on the service, although each individual was to pay their own cell phone bills, except for employees of TBL, who needed cell phones, as part of their jobs.
The services were all pretty much in place by the end of August and Tuckamore Bay slowly began to come out of the shadows of the 20th century, into the fast paced electronic world of the 21st century.
The end of August also heralded in the official opening of the new Tuckamore Bay Welding and Fabrication Shop. Their first job was to enclose the cemetery with a new fence and gate and to erect a beautiful metal monument on Williams' Hill.
Work was continuing on the Community Center, with the second story walled in and a tentative date for occupancy slated for the end of September.
Tuckers General Store got an expansion and was equipped with all new lighting, shelving, counter, coolers, freezers and even shopping carts. Even Tucker's house brand cigarettes got new colouful packaging, hi lighting scenes in the Bay and regular 20 and 25 packaging was adopted. Interac was also set up at the store, so people could use their cards.
An expansion was being planned for the motel and interior work was being done on the Garage, which included new basic equipment and a new lift. Kenny Johnstone was already hired as the manager of the Garage and his son Ken Jr. was apprenticing part time while he finished high school.
Kenny Johnstone
A new bus was purchased to bring the children to school in Deer Lake, with the driving of the bus to be shared by the parents of the students. Plans were being discussed with the Department of Education for the possibility of setting up virtual classrooms with the Deer Lake School Board for classes in the Bay.
A new tractor with plough and dump truck with salter was bought and would be housed in a new building being built at the end of the village, near the welding and fabrication shop. Ron Johnstone was hired to operate the new equipment, as well as a new 5 ton truck to do trips to Deer Lake and Corner Brook for supplies and personal deliveries for people of the Bay, who purchased items in the larger centres.
Ron Johnstone
Jarge landed on the railing of the veranda and hopped to his chair, next to Bill. Bill reached into a cooler and took out a fresh tomcod and fed it to Jarge.
"You really are lazy, you know," Bill laughed, referring to Jarge's unwillingness to join the other seagulls in feeding in the ocean.
Bill petted the gull.
"I loves ya all da same, me son."
"You still have a terrible accent," Matty laughed, as she appeared on the veranda.
She kissed Bill and leaned against the railing.
"Want a drink?"
Matty nodded.
"I would love one, but we have a problem."
Bill took a deep breath.
"What now?"
"I just got a call from Henry. Seems there are a couple government officials in his office and I quote; deys bes babblin' on 'bout some bullshit 'bout us 'ere in da Bay. Says dat wese can't bes stayin' 'ere and shit likes dat."
Bill snuffed his cigar and finished his scotch.
"Lets go see what shit they bes talkin' 'bout."