Friday, July 24, 2009

LOW Rowing Regatta

It's going to be busy on Rabbit Lake this weekend.

The Kenora Rowing Club's annual Tops and Bottoms Rowing Regatta gets underway on Saturday.

More than 100 rowers are taking part in the event at Garrow Park.

There will be plenty of races to choose from, including the 16 and under division, 21 years and under and older than 27 divisions.

Fort Frances Bass Championships

More than 15-hundred pounds of bass was reeling in during the first day of fishing at the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship.

Defending champions Joe Thrun of Annandale, Minnesota and Jim Moynagh of Carver, Minnesota lead the field of 124 teams with 19-point 1-4 pounds.

But a catch of 18-point-2-9 pounds has put Kenora's Dean Tackynk and his fishing partner Trevor Guderyan within striking distance.

The Kenora team is fourth.

Matt Christy of Superior, Wisconsin and Chris Hay of Brooklyn Centre, Minnesota hold down the second spot.

Ron and Dan Lindner of Baxter, Minnesota are third.

The big fish of the day was caught by Scott and Blair Dingwall of Dryden.

They reeled in a 4.82 pound pass

Missing Fire Fighter

A scary moment for a Kenora man.

For the second time in a week, someone got lost in the bush in the Red Lake Area, but survived.

22-year-old Dan Burgelis went missing from a Ministry of Natural Resources training site yesterday afternoon.

Burgelis was on a break when he went for a walk in the bush and got disoriented.

He was located north of Red Lake late last night and was in good spirits.

New Bridge

The province is helping to improve transportation between eightremote First Nations.

The government is giving the Sandy Lake First Nation 158-thousand dollars from the Northern
Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation.

The money will go towards design, environmental assessments andother steps required before construction of a bridge over the Berens River can begin.

The new bridge will increase the number of days that the seasonal ice road network can be used by several First Nations in the FarNorth.

Currently, the river can only be crossed safely when winter ice conditions permit.

Atleo AFN

Area native leaders are throwing their support behind newly elected national chief of the Assembly of First Nations Sean Atleo.

The former vice-chief from B-C won the title following eight rounds of voting in Calgary yesterday.

Couchiching First Nations Chief Chuck McPherson believes Atleo's campaign unfairly benefited from the fact roughly one-third of the 639 eligible voters are from B.C.

The province with the next largest bloc of voters is Ontario, with 134 eligible chiefs.

But McPherson says Atleo will get cross-country support because their is too much to do.

LOWAC Studio Tour

The Lake of the Woods Arts Collective is opening its studio doors to the public this weekend.

A Studio Tour is being held this weekend from 10 until 5 at the various artists workshops in and around the City of Kenora.

Spokesperson Kimberly Kahoot says they have workshops located throughout the city and in nearby Redditt, Black Sturgeon, and Spruce Lake.

Kahoot notes maps are available at both Tourism Kenora locations, and online at www.lowac.ca

NDP Health Critic on Doctor Website

N-D-P Health critic doesn't think a new website is going to do much good in finding Ontarian's a doctor.

France Gelinas says better money would have been spent on initiatives that improves the delivery of health care and brings new physicians to already underserviced communities.

Gelinas says asking people to go to a website isn't going to get them a visit to a physician who already have a long-waiting list.

Highway Safety

The Highway Education Safety Committee in northwestern Ontario has launched a new campaign aimed at reducing accidents on local roads.

Mobile billboards with the message "Just Drive" will be installed onPaul's Hauling trucks in the region.

Sergeant Rod Brown says they want to try to reduce the number of people who insist on talking on the phone or eating while they drive.

Brown says while the province will be enacting legislation later this year to ban the use of cell phones while driving, they want to educatethe public about the dangers of that practice.

Attawapiskat First Nation Sewage

An official of the Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario says Indian Affairs has no plan to relocate residents living in contaminated homes.

However, a department spokeswoman says Indian Affairs officials are in the remote community today to assess the situation, and people could be relocated within the community.

Deputy Chief Theresa Spence says a state of emergency has been declared following the failure of the community's primary sewage lift station on July 11th.

Spence says nearly 70 residents are living in contaminated homes.

Those affected range from babies to elders, many of whom were already facing significant health problems.

Indian Affairs had earlier refused to evacuate residents who became ill from fumes after a school was demolished.