Beach Boy Tickets Selling Quickly

Beach Boy tickets are going faster than a Little Deuce Coupe.

The tickets went on sale this morning and despite a computer glitch, all the 100 dollar and 79 dollar tickets have been sold out.

Heather Paterson is Kenora's Tourism Development Officer and says they aren't sure if or even when they will be able to resume internet sales.

Paterson says so far one thousand of the 15 hundred tickets up for sale have been sold for the June 15th concert.

Last Day for Ice Candle Sales

Today is the last day to pre-order your ice candles at Lake of the Woods Cemetary.

The ice candles will be placed at grave sites on Christmas eve.

Barb Manson says you don't have to have a loved one interred at the cemertary in order to buy an ice candle.

Manson says once again this year, there will be a special ceremony at the Cemetary in the afternoon of December 24th to begin the lighting of the ice candles.

Communities lobby for new E.M.O. Officer

The City of Kenora is supporting a resolution calling on the provincial government to hire a new emergency measures officer for northwestern Ontario.

The current field officer is based in Thunder Bay but is getting set to retire.

Kenora Fire Chief Warren Brinkman says the field officer covers a lot of territory.

Brinkman says the Emergency Measures Field Officer provides a valuable service to local communities, including training and help during community emergencies.

Safe Communities Kenora report card

Kenora's Safe Communities Committee believes there is still room to improve their program locally.

The National Safe Communities organization recently released its report card and Kenora scored 17.5 out of 20, which is better than the provincial and the national

average.

Maria Bagdonis is one of the committee members and says one of the areas they scored well was in community involvement.

Bagdonis says their Safe Communities Committee need work to get more people involved at the executive level and to make their program more sustainable over the long run.

Beer heist in Dryden

The great Northern Ontario heist.

Someone in Dryden managed to steal 63-cases of Labatt's beer from a Transport parked at Husky Wednesday night.

Dryden Police say the culprit or culprits walked the 22-hundred dollars worth of beer north to Pioneer Road and then drove off on a snowmachine.

The suspects left behind one case of suds on the trail.

Police say entry was gained by cutting the lock.

Officers also located a box containing a fax machine, which was reported stolen from a military transport the same night.

Gingerbread Lane this weekend

Its time to take a stroll down Gingerbread Lane.

The Making Kenora Home Committee is holding the fundraiser
this weekend.

Dan Jorgenson is one of the committee members and says they will
be auctioning off 50 or more gingerbread houses tomorrow at the Jubilee Church.

Organizers say they are still accepting donations of gingerbread houses that can be entered into the auction.

AbitibiBowater to exit Bankruptcy protection

AbitibiBowater says its successfully completed its reorganization and has emerged from creditor protection.

President and CEO David Paterson says they've transformed the organization and given AbitibiBowater a new future -- one driven by a company-wide commitment to profitability and sustainability.

Trading of the companies shares is expected to resume today.

More money for paving next year

It looks as if the City of Kenora will be able to keep about a million dollars from this year's paving budget for projects next year.

The City was way under budget for its paving this year and Operations Manager Rick Perchuck says they'd like to use that surplus to continue the Gateway Rehabilitation project on Highway 17 west.

Perchuck says they plan to pave about 2.4 kilometers of Lakeview Drive east of the Keewatin

Bridge next year.

Graffiti fines to be lowered

Kenora City council is considering some changes to the new Graffitti By-Law.

Currently, the set fine for defacing public or private property is a thousand dollars.

Parks Supervisor, Barb Manson says since most of the people they catch  are youth, its hard for them to come up with the thousand dollar fine.

She says the fine has been lowered to 200 dollars.

Manson adds that the city can only recommend the fine amount because its ultimately up to a judge to determine how much a young offender will have to cough up.

Vacancy Rate in Kenora rises

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation suggests that low interest rates may be one reason behind an increase in vacancy rates in Kenora.

The most recent statistics show the vacancy rate was 3.9 percent in October, up from 0.8 percent the year before.

Warren Philp is a market analyst with the CMHC and says this is the first significant

increase in vacancy rates in four years.

On the flip-side, the average cost to rent a two bedroom unit in Kenora has gone up from 732 dollars last year to 799 dollars this year.

OPP in Sioux Lookout investigate Sudden Death

OPP in Sioux Lookout are investigating the death of a 41-year-old Cat Lake First Nation woman.

Police recieved a missing persons report on Wednesday and officers learned that the woman had been out in a remote wooded area.

Officers searched the area and found the body of Doris Loon.

The date of a post-mortem examination in Kenora hasn't been determined.

Festival Of Trees continues to Give

The Festival of Trees continues to give.

Darlene McGillvary is the executive director of the Kenora and Lake of the Woods Regional Community Foundation and says many of the trees that were purchased last Friday have

been donated to other community groups.

She says of the 25 trees sold at auction, 11 have been donated to local agencies, such as the Hospital Foundation, Pinecrest Home for the Aged and Club Day Away.

McGillvary says they also managed to meet their fundraising target for the festival of trees, generating over 25 thousand dollars from the three day event.