dollars at the end of the year removing asbestos from a roof of the plant site.

Just last month, it spent the same amount completing the task on the third roof of its plant.

Five roofs have been targeted in total and the cumbersome work, which is done through private contractors, will be completed when the final roof project is tackled two years down the road.

The company will have spent $1.25 million in total on removing asbestos that was once required in buildings. The work, which began about five years ago, has been spread out to better budget the task.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated matter, the company will soon determine exactly where it will be able to place a new sub-station at the western end of Hamilton to accommodate the power needs of the expanding business district that is emerging there.

The Bank of Bermuda building is nearing completion and work will soon begin on the Bermuda Financial Centre building, adding to the corporate make-up of the area.

The company is working to ensure that an adequate power supply will be available to the area.

*** The energy utility has given the authority to shareholders to obtain more corporate power.

Approval was given at BELCO's AGM to change the company's bye-laws. With a ho-hum nod of approval, shareholders agreed to change the rules that prohibit any single person from owning more than three percent of the total shares.

It never was really a hot issue anyway, because BELCO had no way of knowing for absolutely certain whether people had more than three percent or not. The company pointed out in its explanation of the bye-law change that many shares are held in nominee names and in trusts. The company found it very difficult to ascertain the true beneficial ownership of shares.

In addition, the directors of the company, who proposed the change, were said to consider such restrictions in modern commercial times to be no longer appropriate. The company said that it was not aware if other Bermuda public companies included such restrictions in their bye-laws.

They resolved to amend the bye-laws, removing the restriction.

*** FROM THE 'PHONE LINE...

BUC A caller complained that he had just calculated that he was charged between 16 and 17 percent for a small Bermuda dollar loan last week by a local bank. Said he had just read the Business story about rising interest rates and thought he would calculate the total.

He said that he was shocked to learn that when he counted up all of the charges levied by the bank, the two year facility cost more than sixteen percent per annum of the amount borrowed.

He conceded that he had to proceed with the loan because he didn't believe he had any options.

*** ON THE LIGHTER SIDE...

BUC J.R. Smith (name changed to protect the guilty) arrived at the bank and watched a friend (name withheld for obvious reasons) cash his weekly pay cheque. Smitty couldn't help but hear the teller count out "$100, $200, $300...''and so on. He knew down to the penny exactly what his friend made that week, because like a surprising number of Bermudians, he gets his pay cheque cashed, not deposited into an account.

And tellers are not always so discreet when they are counting out loud. In an age when people are being severely hurt during robberies for less than the average Bermuda pay cheque, it might be a procedure banks might like to review.

But he reported he was quite crushed moments later when he sheepishly looked away from the same teller to see how many people were in ear-shot as she began to count his "$100, $200...''