Kenora Volunteer Heads to Philippines

As we reported last week a Kenora Shelter Box Volunteer is heading to the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan.

Ron Noseworthy will be heading to the Bantayan Islands, North of Saiboo, on the 20th to hand out Shelter Boxes to victims.

He says Shelter Box is aiming at distributing over 4000 boxes which include tents for 10 people, dishes, water purifiers, and much more.

Typhoon Haiyan was one of the largest storms ever recorded and has resulted in almost 4,000 deaths.

To donate visit www.shelterboxcanada.org

Highway Condition Still Slick on Highway 17 east of Kenora

Make sure you take it easy when driving the next couple of days.

Roads are extremely slippery and several collisions have been reported the past 32-hours.

All roads and highways are open but extreme caution is urged.

There have been periodical delays on Highway 17 West of Dryden due to jack-knifed transports and minor collisions.

Other transports have had problems navigating hills, resulting in delays.

Dryden and Wabigoon Fire responded to a two vehicle collision this morning around 9 o'clock.
Officials say a SUV collided with a Highway Grader.

The SUV was totally destroyed and one person was transported to hospital with unknown injuries.

Road Conditions Slowly Improving

Roads in the Kenora area are open this morning.

Yesterday, Highway 17 between Kenora and Vermillion Bay was closed for about eight hours, causing a back log of traffic.

Highway 502 between Dryden and Fort Frances was also closed for several hours last night.

Both both cases, jack-knifed transports were blocking the highway.

The 502 was finally re-opened around 4:00 this morning.

The Kenora area saw about 20 centimeters of snow on Sunday.

Due to the road condition though, all school buses in the Kenora area have been cancelled today.

Horwath Speaks Out for More Social Housing

Creating more affordable housing will lessen the need for emergency shelters in
northwestern Ontario.

That's the feeling of NDP leader Andrea Horwath.

She was in Kenora on Friday and talked about some of the challenges facing the Kenora Fellowship Center.

Horwath says emergency shelters are not supposed to provide affordable housing for the homeless and says there's a problem when people are staying at places like the Fellowship Center for more than a month at a time.

Public School Board Evaluating 21st Century Learning Program

The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board isn't putting the brakes on its 21st Century Learning program, but it is slowing down.

The public school board has spent two million dollars over the past couple of years putting a computer into the hands of every student.

Director of Education Sean Monteith says they want to take some time to evaluate the success of the program now.

Monteith says they still have a number of laptops and net

books in reserve for new students and they want to use those first, before looking at any new purchases.

Northern Cancer Fund Helping Local Patients

The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation has completed a local tour where the Northern  Cancer Fund handed out funding to four hospitals to purchase new chemotherapy screening and treatment equipment.

Foundation President Glenn Craig says it's important to support communities such as Dryden, Sioux Lookout, Red Lake and Kenora.

Craig says cancer is growing at a phenomenal rate in northwestern Ontario and the Thunder Bay hospital doesn't have the room to facilitate the entire region.

Local Taxi Company Lobbies Council for Help

Taxi drivers in Kenora are once again lobbying city council to use
older model vehicles.

Currently, the city doesn't allow cabs to be any older than 10 years.

Eric Lovas is the manager of Co-Ot taxi and says its not necessarily true
that older model cars are in poor mechanical shape.

Lovas says their costs keep rising, and they need to find a way to remain
profitable.

Thistles Traveling Teams Excel on the Road

A good weekend for Kenora's traveling hockey teams.

The Double "a" Bantam Thistles won a tournament in Fort Frances
over the weekend, compiling a 5-1 record over three days.

The Thistles upended Sioux Lookout in the A-side final yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Kenora Double "a" midget Thistles earned a silver
medal at a tournament in Dryden.

The Thistles lost a 5-3 decision to the host Dryden Paper Kings in the
A-side final.

Midget Thistles Win Two at Home

Home cooking seems to agree with the Kenora Triple A Midget Thistles.

The Thistles earned a pair of one-goal wins over the weekend against the
Pembina Valley Hawks at the Kenora Rec. Center.

Yesterday, the Kenora Midgets held on for a 2-1 win over the Hawks.

Dylan Husak scored the game winner midway through the third period.

On Saturday night, the Thistles needed a shootout to get by Pembina Valley
3-2.

The Thistles are now just one game below .500, with a 7-8 record.

Their next game is Friday on the Road in Portage against the Central Plains Capitals.

Lake of the Woods Girls Hockey Teams Return from Thunder Bay

A convoy from the Lake of the Woods Girls Hockey League was in Thunder Bay for the Women's Chill tournament.

The Chaos had the best result, picking up a silver medal in the bant
am division.

The Chaos were undefeated in round robin play and faced a tough Emo squad in the final on Sunday, but were edged 1-0.

The Bantam Grenades earned a 5th place finish after losing to the Dryden Warriors in their final game yesterday.

The Kenora Dynomite were ninth overall in the Bantam division.

Just one Kenora team in the Atom Division, where the Blue Bucaneers earned a third place finish, after losing their final game 3-2 to the Nipigon Elks in their final game.

School Buses Cancelled This Morning

Mother nature has put the breaks on school bus operations across most of the area.

School buses have been cancelled in Kenora, Sioux Narrows, Dryden, Vermilion Bay, Sioux Lookout, Red Lake and Ear Falls.

Rat Portage says it's school bus is also not running this morning.

The Northwestern Ontario Student Services Consortium says road conditions are poor and very little clearing had occurred by late Sunday night.

The Consortium adds that all area roads remain icy.

All schools remain open.