Money Still Available for Community Improvement

After two years, about two thirds of funding available through a community improvement fund for downtown Kenora has been spent.

The fund was set up as part of the downtown revitalization project and encourages local business owners to fix up their building facades and signage.

To date about 133 thousand dollars of the 250 thousand dollars set aside in the CIP fund has been spent.

Heritage Kenora is asking the city to re-new the program once again in 2011, to use up the funds remaining in the budget.

OPP Forensics Lab gets okay from Council

Kenora City Council has given the go ahead for a new

OPP Forensics Laboratory to be built north of the Kenora

By-Pass.

Council approved the site plan for the facility, which will

be built just east of the existing detachment office.

The Property and Planning committee says the OPP didn't

need approval from the city to proceed with construction,

but did so as a courtesy.

Its expected that construction will begin sometime later this year.

IJC Task Force releases Interim Report on Lake of the Woods

A task force looking into water quality issues on Lake of the Woods has come out with its interim report.

The 84 page document looks at some of the agencies currently involved on the lake and address some of the long term issues affecting water quality.

Todd Sellars is the Executive director of the Lake of the Woods Water Sustainability Foundation and says the interim report is a very thorough document.

The task force, which was set up by the Internation Joint Commission will be holding a couple of open houses in April to get feedback on the interim report.

The only stop in northwestern Ontario is April 7th in Sioux Narrows.

Construction on Discovery Center Progressing

The new discovery center on Lakeview Drive is expected to be open

in time for the 2011 tourism season.

Local officials got a first hand look at the facility this week.

Kenora M.P. Greg Rickford says funding for the project was approved under the federal/provincial infrastructure project.

The Discovery Center will function as the new tourism bureau for the city.

Construction is expected to be complete by June.

Freedom of the City for the 116th Independant Field Battery

The 116th Independant Field Battery in Kenora is getting

a unique honor from the city.

Council has granted a request given the military group Freedom

of the City.

The honor is given to organizations or members of the community

that have provided heroric service to the City.

The request to have Kenora give the Freedom of the City was made last month by Colonol Woody Linton during a deputation to council.

He says its an honorary distinction, that places no monetary demands on the city.

Four Council Members at Good Roads

The City of Kenora is well represented this week at the Ontario Good Roads

Conference.

Four members of council and one staff member have made the trip to Toronto

four the three day conference.

Kenora mayor Dave Canfield says their main focus will be to get funding from

the provincial government to help fix up our aging bridges.

Canfield says the price tag for fixing up Kenora's bridges runs into the tens of

millions of dollars, something local taxpayers just can't afford.

Fiecek Rinks Avances to National Wheelchair Championships

A perfect weekend for Wayne Fiecek at the Northern Ontario Wheelchair curling championships.

The Fiecek foursome booked its ticket to the national championships with a 5-4 win over Steve Daniel of Sudbury yesterday at the Fort William Curling Club.

Fiecek finished with a 4-0 record and now moves onto the national championships

at the end of March.

Bronco Hockey teams win in NorWOSSA Semis

Both of Beaver Brae's hockey teams have advance to the NorWOSSA

finals.

The Bronco boys were in Dryden yesterday and earned a 2-1 win over

the Eagles in game two of their best of three semi-final.

Beaver Brae also won Friday night's game 1-0 and take the series
two games to none.

Meanwhile, the Bronco girls beat their cross-town rivals from Thomas
Aquinas in two straight games.

Last night Beaver Brae needed double overtime to tame the Saints.

The Broncos won 4-3, with a game winning goal by Sam Smith.

They now face the winner of the series between Fort Frances and Dryden.

A good weekend for the Kenora Triple "a" senior Thistles.

The Thistles won both games played at the Rec. Center this weekend against

the Fort Frances Thunderhawks.

Yesterday, Jeff Richards scored twice en route to a 6-1 win over Fort.

Saturday night, a similar scenario with the Kenora Seniors earning a 5-1 win.

Their next game is this weekend, with the Penticton Vees coming to town for

a pair of exhibition games.