Friday, September 25, 2009

Greyhound Hampton

Kenora-Rainy River M-P-P Howard Howard wants to know why the province hasn't met with Greyhound over the bus company's plans to withdraw service in northwestern Ontario.

Hampton told the legislature yesterday that while Greyhound worked out a deal last week to continue service in Manitoba, no such meetings are planned with the McGuinty government.

Transportation Minister Jim Bradley said he felt optimistic another company would be prepared to take over Greyhound's routes if it moved forward with its withdrawal of service on December 2nd.

Expensive Sidewalk

Its going to cost a lot more to complete a sidewalk along Lakeview Drive between Bayview Toyota and Minnesota Street.

Council has approved an extra 60 thousand dollars for the project.

Councillor Dave McCann says the project was very expensive and they need the extra funds to complete it properly.

That inlcudes a pedestrian handrail, vehicle guardrails and ashphalt patching.

Sidewalk Plowing

The City of Kenora is going to have to cough up over 40 thousand dollars for a new sidewalk plow.

Councillor Dave McCann says the city has a fleet of three sidewalk plows, but one is on its last legs and needs to be replaced prior to winter.

He adds that the plow that is being replaced is so old that they werenot able to get a good trade-in for it.

He suggests the new plow will be more efficient and shouldn't breakdown as much.

Parking Problems

The City of Kenora is trying to decide what to do about parking in the harborfront next year when phase two of the downtown revitalization project begins.

A number of the permanent spaces on the south parking lot will be taken out of service due to contruction.

Bill Richards is the chair of the Harbortown Center Committee and says they had a meeting of stakeholders yesterday morning to discuss the issue.

A number of suggestions have been made, including using the parking lot beside Hing's Restaurant,the Kenora Rec. Center, or the Mall Parking lot.

A report will be made to council with all the options next month.

Pickle Lake

A big boost for the community of Pickle Lake.

The federal government has announced three million dollarsfor a new community multi-plex.

The new building will house a court house, town offices, a communityhall, and a library.

Kenora M.P. Greg Rickford says the facility will bring together municipal, provincial and federal offices all under one roof.

The total project cost is expected to top five million dollars.

Hefty Fine

A Manitoba resident has been given a hefty fine for trying to smuggle contraband cigarettes in northwestern Ontario.

Carl Fontaine of For Alexander has been sentenced to six months injail and will have to pay almost 340 thousand dollars for possessing unmarked cigarettes for the purpose of sale.

Fontaine was pulled over last August near Marathon with over 900 thousand cigarettes in his possession.

In addtion to the fine, he also will have to pay an 84 thousand dollar surcharge to the Victim Justice Fund.

Harrasment Thunder Bay

A man who once ran for mayor in Thunder Bay is serving afour-month jail sentence for launching a ``campaign'' of harassment against a former girlfriend.

James Gamble was charged in 2007 with assault, criminalharassment, uttering threats, intimidation and failing to comply with bail conditions.

The charges followed complaints lodged by a 42-year-old woman.

In May, Gamble was acquitted on three charges, but found guiltyof criminal harassment and breach of a court order.