Dry Winter Makes Barbeque Spot Burn; Tall Tower Power for Swisscom; Fischer Says Bye to Basel; Vinyl Instead of CD Players

News For 11 April 2017

On Sunday night, part of the woods in Muttenz close to the Wartenberg ruins caught fire. When the fire department arrived on the scene, an area of about 250 square metres was burning. The area around the ruins is known as a popular barbeque spot, and people don’t always use the designated grill sites. The actual cause of the fire is still undetermined. Just last week, the canton warned of the many potential fire sources in the region’s forests. This past winter was the driest on record in more than 40 years, measuring only 107 millimeters of rain between December and March.

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The tower of Chrischona in Bettingen by Riehen, the highest free-standing structure in Basel, is being considered as a new site for photovoltaic cells. Swisscom, the owner of the tower, would like to mount the cells on four of the nine flat surfaces on the tower, namely the ones facing south. The amount of electricity generated this way should cover the requirements of 30 households, though it will be used for Swisscom's own needs. The cost of the new facility is estimated at 450’000 Swiss Francs. Swisscom expects it to be built in August of this year, and to have it hooked up to the main power grid by September.

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The soccer club of Basel, the FCB, is letting their coach Urs Fischer go. The Zürcher has been with the club since 2015 and is steering the club towards another Swiss championship victory – Fischer’s second in a row. But the club doesn’t want to extend his contract. The FCB hasn’t announced his successor yet, although they do have a requirement profile. The logical candidate seems to be Raphael Wicky, who is currently the coach of the junior league of the club.

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The store “Zihlmann”, which is known for selling household appliances and home entertainment equipment, is embracing a new but old trend: vinyl records. In 2016, 204’000 records were sold in Switzerland - that’s eight times more than four years ago. However, the sudden popularity surge of records is forcing old record stores to close. The reason for this is online shopping. One of the store’s main motivational reasons for this change was the departure of Musik Hug from the middle of town; according to Zihlmann’s manager David Groth, people who bought their records at Musik Hug can now go to Zihlmann instead.