In their 51 years of being in the irrigation business in Williams Lake, Dick and Donna Ford said they’ve never experienced anything like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Similar to other businesses, Highlands Irrigation Ltd. is taking precautions of its own.
Dick moved his office from the business location on South Lakeside Drive into the basement of their home and is managing things differently, he said
“For example, I’ll go out to a ranch north of Williams Lake here next week on my own and suggest the farmer gets in his truck and we drive to the site we have to look at,” Dick said.
“It’s not often that we have to be totally shoulder-by-shoulder, but in normal times it is convenient to be that way sometimes. Right now, we have to do things differently, even if it isn’t as convenient.”
If someone is making a delivery Dick said the company needs to ensure they will be safe.
Two employees working out of the Kamloops office in Merritt have been taking two trucks instead of one because ‘how else do you keep a distance?” he added.
Earlier this week Donna snapped a photograph of a truck loaded with pipes that Highlands Irrigation was sending north to a gold mine in the Yukon.
“I wanted to let people know that some business is carrying on as normal,” Donna said. “We need good news.”
Read more: CATTLE COUNTRY 2019: Highlands Irrigation servicing ranching community since 1974
Dick said gold mine workers who can are heading back to work at the placer mine in the Yukon, as the mine prepares for its operations because the ice is finally melting.
“They will be running all summer and probably glad of the isolation,” he added.
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