Monday, August 10, 2009

Richards Hockey Camp

Philadelphia Flyers Captain Mike Richards is hosting his annual hockey school this week at the Keewatin arena.

The hockey camp is a fundraiser for the Lake of the Woods Community Foundation.

Organizer John Barr says they still have some spots available for their half day classes.

Community Foundation Executive Director Darlene McGillvray says they really appreciate Mike's hard work and dedication to the community.

Downtown Revitalization Funding

Phase two of the downtown revitalization project now has the greenlight to proceed.

Last week, the federal government contributed two million dollars towards the 5.25 million dollar project.

City Planner Jeff Port says they are just getting ready to put the project out for tender.

Port says they hope to get some of the infrastructure work in Lake ofthe Woods Plaza completed this fall, with the rest of the landscaping held over until spring of 2010.

MNR Fires BC

A two week tour of duty has been completed by 122 fire rangers employed by the Ministry of Natural Resources out in BC.

Melissa Austin is based out of Dryden and returned home on Saturday.

She says fighting fires out in British Columbia is much different than here in northwestern Ontario.

The MNR has sent another 122 fire rangers out west to replace the ones which just returned home.

KBI Final Results

By a mere .02 pounds, Brian Mcnanney and Matthew Rydberg are your 2009 KBI Champions.

The Sioux Narrows duo edged last years champions Jeff Gustafson and Chris Savage to claim the crown with the final weigh-in of the day.

Their 3 day total was 51.31 pounds compared to 51.29 for Gustafson and Savage.

Finishing third was Tim Strempler of Winnipeg and Michael Causyn of Kenora.

Canada once again claimed the Frank Townsend trophy.

Their 3 day haul was 229.69 pounds while team USA caught 199.38 pounds of bass.

The William A Kostick trophy for top father /son duo went to Jeff and Blair Dingwall and the big fish of the weekend belonged to Jim and Andy Flack who caught a 6.31 pound large mouth.

Katie Dennis Competes in Hungary

Kenora Judo Competitor Katie Dennis beat the Haitie National Champion over the weekend to advance to the final 16 of the world.

Dennis then lost to the Turkish National Champ in a very close match being eliminated from the first world cadet championships.

Over 500 athletes from around the world competed in the four day event.

The best results for the young Canadian team was two fifth place finishes.

Flaherty on recession

The federal finance minister says he's not willing to declare the recession over yet.

Jim Flaherty was in Kenora last week and says while economic signs are improving, it could be a few more months before there is real evidence of growth in the economy.

Flaherty says the Harper government is prepared to continue theireconomic stimulus package into 2011 to ensure there is continued economic growth, that that Canada doesn't slip back into recession.

H1N1 Virus NWO

The spread of the H1N1 virus hasn't completely died off just yet.

The Ministry of Health says it was able to confirm 3-new incidents of the swine flu in this region.

The province has not indicated which communities the virus has been reported in.

There are currently 73 confirmed cases of H1N1 in Northwestern Ontario.

Dragon Boat Festival

The Super Troopers are the defending champions of the Kenora Dragon Boat Festival.

The team is made up of Kenora's Bouchay family.

The local team has won two years in a row, and won the A side final by mere seconds over their competition.

Boat Theft

Kenora OPP are investigating a case of breaking and entering in the Melick area of town.

The Jaffray Mellick Recreation Centre was broken into sometime on August 8th.

An investigation is continuing.

Meanwhile, Police are looking into the theft of a 2007 20 foot lund, with a 225 Yamaha engine.

The black boat was stolen from Birch Island Resort near Minaki early Saturday morning.

Impaired Driving

Kenora OPP have charged two more people with impaired driving.

A RIDE check on Friday night resulted in 42 year old Lois Stoll being charged with failing to provide a breath sample.

At 5:30 Saturday morning officers came across a vehicle that was being operated in a suspicious
manner.

The vehicle was stopped and the driver was found to be impaired.

27 year old Lena Copenace from Sabaskong was charged with drinking and driving.