Dufresne's Furniture Expands

Dufresne's furniture and appliances has bought up two existing Colonial Furniture Stores in Ottawa.

The Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario company will be taking over those outlets in the near future.

Vice President Debra Jonasson-Young says they have a lot in common with the stores they bought.

Jonasson-Young says they're business is thriving and hope to expand their franchise further.

LHIN Award

The Northwest Local Health Integration Network has been handed a prestigeous international award.

The LHIN received the 2009 Innovation Award at the International Association for Public Particpation Conference in San Diego.

The group was recognized for its Share Your Storey, Shape Your Care initiative.

The project reached out to residents across the Region to help shape the future of the local health care system.

Dryden was a major player in the initaitive with the highest participation rate.

Rabbit Lake Shoreline

After much discussion, Kenora City Council has agreed to sell parcels of the Rabbit Lake
Shoreline to homeowners with abutting property.

There will be a number of conditions attached to the sale of the shoreline.

Council says that that there cannot be any negative impact to fish and wildlife in the area.

The municipality also cannot have any interest in the land, and best practices need to be followed for shoreline stewardship.

A number of Rabbit Lake residents had made a request to the property and planning committee to make shoreline property available to them.

OPP Charge Daily Miner

The editor and the publisher of the Kenora Daily Miner and News have been charged under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

After a lengthy investigation, the OPP laid the charges after receiving a complaint that the local newspaper had published a photograph of a youth who was charged with a criminal offense.

Shelley Garr is a spokesperson for the OPP in Thunder Bay and says a couple of charges have been laid in this incident.

They are due to appear in Kenora Court on November 9th to answer the charges.

Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, its illegal to publish anything that might lead to the identity of a young offender.

OPP Service Hours August

The commander of the Kenora Detachment of the OPP says their first month of policing the City of Kenora has gone well.

Inspector Dave Lucas made his first report to the Kenora Police Services Board on Friday.

Lucas says officers compiled over seven thousand hours of duty, plus another 324 hours in overtime.

The OPP had over 15 hundred calls for service last month.

Lucas says August tends to be one of the busier months of the year due to all the special events in the city, including Harborfest and KBI.

OPP Data Entry

The OPP says its found a way of keeping officers out onthe street and on patrol instead of behind the desk writing reports.

Inspector Dave Lucas says they have a state-of-the-art dataentry system, which is freeing up officers for other more important duties.

Lucas says the data entry system is one of the few beingused by the OPP.

He says it was part of the contract agreement when the OPPagreed to start policing the city.

Police Services Board

The Kenora Police Services Board is now down to just three members.

The new board met yesterday for the first time.

Colin Wasacase and Kenora mayor Len Compton were appointed asthe municipal representitives on the board.

The province still hasn't indicated who it plans to appoint.

Pat Brett is continuing on as the provincial representive,but he says his appointment is basically a six monthinterim position.

He says he will remain on the board until he's re-appointedas the provincial rep, or the Minister of Community Safetyfinds a replacement.

Thunder Bay Wood

The McGuinty Government is providing over 1-million dollars in funding and more then 3.8-million dollars in loan guarantees to support a new Wood Products Factory in Thunder Bay.

Canadian Company Global Sticks will build a state-of-the-art factory to create sticks used for ice cream bars, popsicles, corn dogs and tongue depressors.

Construction is expected to begin next month and will be completed in January.

The Mill will employee roughly 75-people.

Northern Growth Plan Update

It hasn't been released yet, but there is already concerns being expressed with the proposed Northern Growth plan.

David Lindsay, Northern Development, Mines and Forestry Deputy Minister, says a draft of the economic blueprint for the north should be released by the end of October or early November.

But Lindsay says there is already talk that it will be a grant program for the north which it won't be.

Lindsay says the document should be more about changing attitudes and policies that foster development.

Worst Roads Campaign

There is only 3-days left to vote for Ontario's worst road.

Local residents can submit their vote by going to www.worstroads.ca.

90-percent of the top 20 worst roads listed in previous years have been or about to be repaired.

The initiative is meant to convince the Government to fix roads, highways and bridges.

Greyhound Hampton

Kenora-Rainy River M-P-P Howard Howard wants to know why the province hasn't met with Greyhound over the bus company's plans to withdraw service in northwestern Ontario.

Hampton told the legislature yesterday that while Greyhound worked out a deal last week to continue service in Manitoba, no such meetings are planned with the McGuinty government.

Transportation Minister Jim Bradley said he felt optimistic another company would be prepared to take over Greyhound's routes if it moved forward with its withdrawal of service on December 2nd.

Expensive Sidewalk

Its going to cost a lot more to complete a sidewalk along Lakeview Drive between Bayview Toyota and Minnesota Street.

Council has approved an extra 60 thousand dollars for the project.

Councillor Dave McCann says the project was very expensive and they need the extra funds to complete it properly.

That inlcudes a pedestrian handrail, vehicle guardrails and ashphalt patching.

Sidewalk Plowing

The City of Kenora is going to have to cough up over 40 thousand dollars for a new sidewalk plow.

Councillor Dave McCann says the city has a fleet of three sidewalk plows, but one is on its last legs and needs to be replaced prior to winter.

He adds that the plow that is being replaced is so old that they werenot able to get a good trade-in for it.

He suggests the new plow will be more efficient and shouldn't breakdown as much.

Parking Problems

The City of Kenora is trying to decide what to do about parking in the harborfront next year when phase two of the downtown revitalization project begins.

A number of the permanent spaces on the south parking lot will be taken out of service due to contruction.

Bill Richards is the chair of the Harbortown Center Committee and says they had a meeting of stakeholders yesterday morning to discuss the issue.

A number of suggestions have been made, including using the parking lot beside Hing's Restaurant,the Kenora Rec. Center, or the Mall Parking lot.

A report will be made to council with all the options next month.

Pickle Lake

A big boost for the community of Pickle Lake.

The federal government has announced three million dollarsfor a new community multi-plex.

The new building will house a court house, town offices, a communityhall, and a library.

Kenora M.P. Greg Rickford says the facility will bring together municipal, provincial and federal offices all under one roof.

The total project cost is expected to top five million dollars.

Hefty Fine

A Manitoba resident has been given a hefty fine for trying to smuggle contraband cigarettes in northwestern Ontario.

Carl Fontaine of For Alexander has been sentenced to six months injail and will have to pay almost 340 thousand dollars for possessing unmarked cigarettes for the purpose of sale.

Fontaine was pulled over last August near Marathon with over 900 thousand cigarettes in his possession.

In addtion to the fine, he also will have to pay an 84 thousand dollar surcharge to the Victim Justice Fund.

Harrasment Thunder Bay

A man who once ran for mayor in Thunder Bay is serving afour-month jail sentence for launching a ``campaign'' of harassment against a former girlfriend.

James Gamble was charged in 2007 with assault, criminalharassment, uttering threats, intimidation and failing to comply with bail conditions.

The charges followed complaints lodged by a 42-year-old woman.

In May, Gamble was acquitted on three charges, but found guiltyof criminal harassment and breach of a court order.

Tourism Marketing Ideas

The Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership is hoping to create a buzz on the internet about the wonders Northern Ontario has to offer.

The Corporation has launched a new on-line portal northernontario.travel, with pictures, testimonials and a calander of events.

Spokesperson Chris Milner says they also want to look outside the box to attract more tourists.

Milner says they have also formed great partnerships to promote the area and aligned with Mountain Co-Op across Canada and the Bass Pro Shop chain in Vaughn, Ontario.

Chamber of Commerce Responds to Council

The Kenora and District Chamber of Commerce says its more than willing to work with city council on initiatives that affect local business.

The chamber took time this week to clarify some recent comments it made about the relationship between the city and small business.

Thelma Wilkens-Page is past president of the chamber and says they feel they have a good working relationship with council, but want more input from their members on municipal issues that could affect them.

Wilkens-Page says its important that the chamber remains in close contact with council in order to find out what future initiatives could impact their members.

Council Endorse Jones Road Landfill

Despite the objections of some residents of Black Sturgeon Lake, Kenora City Council has decided to start shipping garbage to the Jones Road Landfill site.

Council voted unanimously last night to use the Silver Lake site for waste starting November 1st.

Dan Olscamp represents Black Sturgeon property owners and says he has concerns about the location of the municipal landfill.

Councillor Dave McCann defended council's decision.

He says the municipality can save almost 200 thousand dollars by taking city garbage to the Jones Road Landfill rather than Winnipeg.

Olscamp had asked council to defer its decision until it could hold a public meeting on the issue.