THIS DAY IN OUR PAST

The following events took place on September 7 in the years identified:

1979:The crisis in the electricity services deepens with power cuts islandwide as most of the JPSCo workers on strike at Old Harbour remain out in defiance of a resumption order by the Industrial Disputes Tribunal. The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, citing millions of dollars in losses to the economy, calls for an urgent meeting with the minister of public utilities. JPSCo technicians instituted power cuts across the island because of the malfunctioning of two generating units. The No. 2 unit at Old Harbour, St Catherine, the only one of the four units at the plant which continued working, tripped out Thursday, September 6. The B6 unit at Hunts Bay in Kingston has been malfunctioning since the start of the week. The result is that the company’s power output has been reduced by one-fifth. A spokesman for the company says that the load-shedding operation had gripped the entire island and the places affected are too numerous to mention. 1988: The newly refur bished ‘Back House’ dormitory at the Maxfield Park Children’s Home, Kingston, is reopened. It is renovated at a cost of $185,000 by Citibank and houses 46 of the 169 children at the home. According to Jampress, Edmund Bartlett, minister of youth and community development, says there are 500 children in places of safety, children’s homes and foster homes, and the number is growing. 2001:local Stop orders from

building and planning authorities are drafted to prevent incoming mobile phone provider, Centennial Digital, from building cellular towers in two communities in St Andrew. The orders are prepared and passed to environmental wardens to deliver them to the company, public information officer at the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), Rosemarie Chung, says. NEPA and the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) accuse Centennial of starting the construction of cellular towers on Red Hills Road and in the residential Three Oaks Gardens community without approval. City engineer, Tex Innerarity, says he is informed that Centennial had directed its contractors to begin building in Three Oaks because it is either expecting or has received building approval.