Serbian Americans: History—Culture—Press

The Nikola Tesla Educational Corporation (NTEC) has started an initiative to rename the upper portion of "Burlington Street", in Hamilton, Ontario, to "Nikola Tesla Boulevard". Tesla was a genius who changed the world, and influenced the industrialization of Hamilton a century ago, specifically around Burlington Street. On October 14th, 2015 The Hamilton City Council approved the proposal of the name change under the condition that NTEC raises up to $150,000 to cover the costs of signage.

Nikola Tesla has been our personal inspiration for as long as we can recall.

For many years, we were astonished at the lack of awareness by the general public about this genius who has give the world so much. In the past few years, however, people have discovered Nikola Tesla.

A small group of us started discussing the opportunities in our community, here in Hamilton. We approached Bob Bratina, former Mayor of Hamilton with our vision. The Mayor asked about Mr Tesla’s connection to Hamilton. He knew the answer and proceeded to educate us about it, as follows:

Hamilton was the first major city to receive AC electricity in Canada.
The “Five Johns” built the oldest power generating station, in operation today, in Canada,
All the power was shipped to Hamilton via the second longest power line in the world at the time,
Hamilton became to be known as the “Electric City”
The city prospered and grew partly because it had the “Cheapest Electrical Power”

Our organization was incorporated in April 2014. On May 15, 2014 our organization held its inaugural meeting where we adopted a set of bylaws, a mission statement and appointed our first board of directors and officers. As of April 17, 2015 the Nikola Tesla Educational Corporation is a Canadian Registered Charity in support of schools and education.

On October 6, 2015, NTEC’s president led a group of presenters which included Ves Sobot, Dr. Colin Campbell and Michael Wolfe in a presentation to the City of Hamilton Planning Committee. The Planning Committee was considering NTEC’s request to rename a portion of Burlington Street to Nikola Tesla Expressway. With a unanimous approval of the motion from Councilor Chad Collins, the matter was referred to City Council for final approval.

On October 14, 2015, the recommendation came before City of Hamilton Council, with only a minor motion to replace “expressway” in the name, Council unanimously approved the renaming to Nikola Tesla Boulevard.

see: https://youtu.be/-oa3bzmXwIA

NTEC’s next step it to raise the funds, estimated at $150,000, to pay for the necessary signage changes. Target date is to change the name is of the change name is June 2016 in time for Nikola Tesla’s 160th birthday, on July 10, 2016.

NTEC is also raising funds for awards and scholarships, which are anticipated to be implemented in time for the 2016 school year end.

Those wising to donate can do it thought this site using PayPal or their own credit card. Other options for financial and/or other support are welcome, please contact us to make the arrangements.

Letter: English, Serbian

Poster: English, Serbian

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