THIS DAY IN OUR PAST

The following events took place on March 13 in the years identified:

1982:

The new system of turning on water to the public in the areas served by the Hermitage Dam from 6:30 to 8 o’ clock each morning and again at 6 o’clock each evening, “starts very well”, The Gleaner is told. Public Utilities Minister Pearnel Charles tells The Gleaner that in addition to the new system, seven water-tank trucks are sent out by the National Water Commission at 10:15 a.m to distribute water to communities served by the Hermitage Dam where the water pressure was so l ow that householders could not get any from their taps. Appealing to the public “not to panic”, the minister says the new provisions are designed to ration water so as to ensure that there is an adequate supply for all. The water that goes out from the dam, he says, is the water that had flowed in, so none is “lost” from the dam’s storage of 65 million gallons.

1982:

Deputy Prime Minister Hugh Shearer says that successful talks have been held between himself and the nine-man Government delegation from the Federal Republic of Germany on bilateral economic arrangements. The German delegation, head by the Minister for Economic Cooperation Rainer Offergeld, arrived in the island on Friday, March 12, 1982, and meets with the deputy prime minister. At a luncheon for the Germans, which he hosts at The Terra Nova Hotel, Shearer says that discussions are held with the visiting delegation on a wide range of bilateral arrangements. With the arrival of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Karl Carstens on April 10, the economic arrangements will be finalised.

1984:

Pan-Jamaican Invest– ment Trust buys the Sans Souci Hotel and resort complex, in the Ocho Rios resort area, for an undisclosed sum, and will start operating it as from next winter tourist season. Acquired along with the 70-room hotel, which has the distinction of being one of the more attractive of the Ocho Rios tourism properties, are the adjoining 22 acres of land between the hotel and the White River.

–GLEANER ARCHIVES