Monday, April 5, 2010

City Hires new CAO

The City of Kenora has decided to hire from within for its new Chief Administrative Officer.

Karen Brown has been hired to replace Bill Priesentanz, who will retire later this year.

Brown is currently the Finance Manager for the City and has been a municipal employees for the past 18 years.

She'll take over her new duties as of August 1st.

The City began the hiring process back in the fall after Priesentanz indicated that he was planning to retire sometime in 2010.

Senior Thistles lose in Thunder Bay

The Kenora Triple "a" senior Thistles will have to wait another year to make an appearance at the Allan Cup.

The Thistles were eliminated in two straight games in their best-of-three series against the Dundas Real McCoys.

On Friday, Kenora dropped a 2-1 decision, and then lost 4-1 Saturday night.

The series was played in Thunder Bay and Dundas now advances to the Allan Cup Senior Canadian Championships in Fort St. John later this month.

Meanwhile, the Northwestern All-Stars Triple "a" hockey team is at the Ontario Championships in St. Mary's this week.

The All-Stars, made up of players from Kenora, Dryden, Fort Frances and elsewhere across the region, play their first game this morning at 10:00 against the host Huron-Perth Lakers.

OPP recruiting women

A special symposium targeted at women is going to be held by the OPP this spring.

The one day session is aimed at women interested in a career with the provincial police.

Constable Dave Cain says one of the main focuses ofthe symposiums is explaining the recruitment process.

Cain says space is limited to just 12 people, so anyone interested is asked to contact Sergeant Darryl Wilson as soon as possible.

The symposium will take place May 5th at the Kenora Detachment.

NOMA on Provinicial Budget

Municipalities in the region are still digesting the figures contained in last week's provincial budget.

Anne Krassilowski is president of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association and says the budget has some pretty good news for the north.

She does have some concerns with the premier's comment that municipalities should follow the province's lead and freeze employees salaries.

Krassilowski adds that increased funding for Ontario Works and the new industrial hydro rate for the north are boththings that will help out the region.

Another Snowmobile Fatal

Another person has died after falling through the ice in Northwestern Ontario.

The latest incident happened on Upper Jobrin Lake 4- kilometres north of Longlac.

A 48 year old Cochrane man died when a snowmobile fell through the ice yesterday.

Two others were rescued and one was airlifted to the Health Sciences Centre.

Warm weather has caused unsafe conditions and officials are urging people to stay off the ice.