Nestor Falls Leads Ultimate Fishing Town Contest

Nestor Falls is number one.

At least for now.

The tiny community south of Kenora has put up huge numbers in voting

in the World Fishing Network's Ultimate Fishing Town Contest.

Nestor Falls took the lead this morning after trailing Port Alberni, British Columbia since the beginning of the contest.

Voting will wrap up one week from today.

The winning community will get a cheque for 25 thousand dollars.

New Fire Truck on Tour

Kenora's new fire truck is being shown off this week to a large group of interested by-standers.

The Metro Star Pumper is being show-cased at the national convention of the Canadian Fire Chiefs

in St. John, New Brunswick.

The new fire truck won't fit in the old fire hall on Second Street South, and can't be moved yet

into the new fire hall on Barsky's Hill.

So the company that sold the fire truck to Kenora's Fire and Emergency Services Department has asked if they could take the vehicle on a tour of Canada to show it off.

After leaving New Brunswick, it will head to Brandon, Manitoba before it arrives at its new home in
Kenora. 

More Funding for Skills Training

The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board is getting funding from the federal government to offer a skills training program.

The program will be offered in Kenora and Dryden and will help a number of young adults make the transition into the workforce or allow them to return to school.

190 thousand dollars is been promised through the Good Job Skills Training project.

Under the program, students will attend employability workshops and get on-the-job

training through work placements.

The funding will allow as many as 24 people to enter the program.

Another Public Information Center on Highway 17 Twinning

It looks as if a final route for the twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway west of Kenora is

going to be delayed for a few more months.

At least two more public information sessions are planned before a final decision is made.

The next open house will be held on October 2nd at the Kenora Legion.

The consultant tasked with doing the route plan says the additional public information centers

have been arranged to deal with some of the concerns raised by residents in the Clearwater

Bay area.

A final route plan is expected to be presented at a fourth public information session sometime early in 2011 and the prelimiary design is scheduled to be unveiled by summer of next year.

DSSAB Accepts City Offer for Land Ambulence Base

The Kenora District Services Board has come to an agreement with the City of Kenora's on the location

of a new land ambulence base.

The two sides issued a joint release saying that the offer of land west of the new fire hall on

14th Street North has been accepted.

The city has offered the property at no cost to the Services Board.

Chair of the land ambulence committee, Garry Parkes says after 10 years of searching for a suitable location, they are now a step further towards construction of a new facility.

Once terms and conditions of the agreement are finalized, the Services Board is expected to

begin moving ahead with development of the new land ambulence base.

Catholic Board Pleased with most EQAO Results

The Kenora Catholic District School Board says there is still some room for improvement in the most recent grade three, grade six and grade nine standardized test results.

While there was improvement in grade three reading and grade six reading and writing, results for grade three math and math and grade six math decreased.

Assistant Superintendant of School Effectiveness, Mary Cunningham says they are looking at ways of improving their test results.

Cunningham adds that math results for grade nine students in both the applied and academic streams

were well above the provincial average.

Parson Curtails Campaign Appearances

Most candidates running in the October 25th municipal elections are just getting

their campaigns up to full steam.

But at least one person is being forced to curtail his campaign appearances.

Jim Parson is one of three people running for mayor, and says due to an illness in his family, he won't be making any public appearances over the next couple of months.

There are three all-candidate forums next week, but Parsons says he will not be able to attend.

He says his heart is still in the election race and won't be withdrawing from the mayoralty race.