City looks to haul own Garbage and recycling

Kenora and Dryden could soon be teaming up in a bid to reduce recycling costs.


The city is planning to buy a transport truck which would haul recyclables from Kenora
a couple of times a week, and two times a week from Dryden.
The Solid Waste Department is eligible for 80 thousand dollars in funding from Waste Diversion
Ontario for the purchase of the truck.

Operations manager Rick Perchuck says they can reduce their costs by doing doing the
hauling themselves instead of contracting it out.

The City of Dryden still has to come to an agreement with Kenora to share the costs of
hauling the recyclables.

The city estimates it will be able to save about 35 thousand dollars a year by doing its
own hauling.

Signage Options Explored

The City of Kenora is considering an idea to install five permanent, changeable message boards at various access points in the city to promote special events.

At the Property and Planning Committee this week, councillor Wendy Cuthbert says the signs could be posted on Lakeview Driver, the Tourism Office on Highway 17 east, Jack Robinson Park, the new Norman Discovery Center and at the intersection of Valley Drive
                                                       and the Airport Road.

She says the signs would provide an avenue for advertising for non-profit groups.

They have complained in recent months they no longer had space to promote their
events, since the CP rail fence has been made off limits under the new Sign By-Law.

The idea came forward from the Beaches, Parks and Trails Committee and will be
put forward for inclusion in the 2011 municipal budget.

No more flavours Smokes

Local health officials are calling it an important step forward for public health.


All flavoured cigarettes and cigarillos must be pulled from store shelves.

The ban came into effect July 1st..

Daniel Depeuter says he would have liked to see the Federal Government take the ban one step further and ban flavoured chew tobacco.

Store owners caught selling the flavoured tobacco products will be subject to potential enforcement action, including fines.

Free Family Fishing Week Wraps Up

Organizers of Family Fishing Week activities say they expect Free Family Fishing week will become an annual event.

This is the first year free fishing in Ontario waters has been expanded from two days up to seven.

Mike Melnyk is with the group called Catch Fishing and says doesn't think there will be any turning back now.

Melnyk says they also hope to expand their Free Family Ice Fishing weekend in
February, to a full week in 2011.

Teaching Opportunities Decline

A federal agency is suggesting the prospects of finding a teaching job in an elementary school in northwestern Ontario over the next few years will be limited.

Human Resources and Skills Development Canada says the people currently in the professin are relatively young with only about one-quarter of all teachers now employed over the age of fifty.

Declining enrolments and school closures are also cited as having on impact on job prospects.

The agency says prospects are better for teachers who willing to relocate to remote or First Nation communities or work casual or on-call.

Low fire hazard

The high humidity levels are helping to control the forest fire hazard.

Jeff Antoszek of the Ministry of Natural Resources says there is enough moisture in the air to keep forest from getting tinder dry.


There was just one forest fire reported in the region yesterday.

Its an 18 hectare blaze about 120 kilometers north of Pickle Lake.

The fire hazard across the region is low to moderate today.

Rickford responds to MP extra income

No complaints from Greg Rickford.

The Kenora Conservative MP thinks there's nothing wrong with some MPs having an extra income.

He says he says the only rule should be that elected duties come first


The names of about 150 MPs who had outside income were named recently, that included Thunder Bay NDP MPs Bruce Hyer and John Rafferty.

MNR Safety Advisory

The Ministry of Natural resources is advising people to use caution while travelling on resource access roads in the Kenora District.


They say the roads do not receive regular maintenance and could be a danger to travellers.

The risks include road washouts, water over the road, and heavy rutting.

The advisory comes after heavy rainfall last weekend.

OPP Summer Students on Patrol

Local police will have an extra set of eyes and ears on duty this summer in downtown
Kenora.

Three summer students have been hired to patrol the harbortown area.

Contable Dave Cain of the OPP says the students will be involved in a number of different initiatives.

Cain says the students will be clearly identified with uniforms as OPP summer students.

The OPP's Marine Unit also has three summer students on duty.

Outflow from Norman Dam increased again

The Lake of the Woods Control Board has authorized another increase in outflow from the
Norman Dam into the Winnipeg River.

Outflow will be increased 360 cubic meters per second later today.

This is the second such increase in two days, as the Control Board tries to keep water
levels from rising too fast.

The lake rose four inches over the past week and is expected to rise by as much as six inches
over the next couple of days.

City council on Trans-Canada Twinning Project

Kenora City Council is endorsing a lobby effort by residents living west of Kenora to have

the route for the twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway moved away from Lake of the Woods.

A letter was sent to council recently asking it to support a move of the new four lane highway north of the existing road bed to help protect water quality on Clearwater Bay.

The Ministry of Transportation will be holding another open house on the route-planning for Highway 17 west on July 24th.

Kenora Mayor Len Compton says the MTO should look at moving the new highway away from
the lake, even if its costs more to do it.

Construction work on the first 10 kilometers of the double lane highway is expected to begin
later this year.

NAN Grand Chief Meets Queen

The Grand Chief of the Nishbawbe Aski Nation is feeling good after his meeting with the Queen yesterday.

Stan Beardy says it was imporant that she met with him because it means she respects First Nation treaty rights.


Chief Beardy says he told the Queen that it was the 100th anniversity of the signing of Tready 5.

New Zoning By-Law gets feedback

The City of Kenora should have a new zoning by-law in place by the fall.

Yesterday a public meeting was held to get feedback on the revised zoning
changes.

Murray Chown is a planner hired by the Tim Horton's Corporation and says they have been working with the city on some changes to the zoning regulations, which would allow restaurants in more areas designated at light industrial.
The city started reviewing its zoning by-law last year in conjunction with the
new Official Plan, which is expected to be approved by the province by the end
of August.

Graffitti By-Law almost ready

Kenora City Council is putting the finishing touches on a by-law that would try to control the spread of graffitti.

The Anti-Graffitti By-Law is expected to go before council next week.

Operations Manager Rick Perchuck says under the By-Law, the city would purchase specialized kits which can be used to cover up unsightly spray paint.

The kits would be made available to owners of private property who have re-occurring
graffitti issues.

Fire Hall Fit and Finish Funding sought

Kenora's Fire and Emergency Services Department is seeking an additional
138 thousand dollars from the city to furnish the new fire hall on Barsky's Hill.

Fire Chief Warren Brinkman says the Fit and Finish of the new building was never
included in the 5.9 million dollar construction budget.

Brinkman says the fire hall project is pretty much on budget, though the cost of
roofing is about 24 hundred dollars higher than projected.

Construction is expected to be complete by late August or early September.

Abitibi Restructuring Nearly Complete

AbitibiBowater could end nearly eighteen months of creditor and bankruptcy protection on October 1 if its restructuring plan wins creditor support next month.


A meeting on the plan takes place August 26th.

The plan would see unsecured creditors receiving between nothing and 48 per cent when their debt is converted to equity, depending on their class.

Current shareholders will walk away empty-handed.

Others fall somewhere in between, including workers who received no severance when their mills were shut over the past year.

Municipal Candidates Workshop

Anyone interested in running in the upcoming municipal elections in the fall can get a reality
check this week.

The Kenora and District Chamber of Commerce is co-sponsoring a special two hour session for potential candidates.

Andy Scribilo is the president of the chamber and says they just want to make sure
they have a good slate of candidates come October 25th.

The Candidates Session will take place tomorrow night at the Best Western Lakeside
Inn from 7 til 9.

Scribilo says you can pre-register by calling the chamber office or just show up at the
door.

Water Levels Rising

Water levels on Lake of the Woods have spiked in recent days due to all the
rain this past weekend.

The Lake of the Woods Control Board says the lake has risen about 10 centimeters
over the past three days.

Rick Cousins is a spokesperson for the control board and says as a result they will
be increasing outflow today from the Norman Dam into the Winnipeg River.

Cousins says water levels on the Winnipeg River below the Norman Dam could jump
about a foot this week due to the increase in outflows.

Drowning near Sprague

A 22 year old man is dead after drowining in a lake near the Manitoba/Ontario
border.

The RCMP say they were called to Moose Lake Provincial Park over the weekend.

Police say two men were having a swimming race near an unsupervised beach Sunday
afternoon.
One of the men began to tire and was unable to keep his head above water.

People at the beach spent about 15 minutes searching for the missing man, but
by the time they found him, he could not be resuscitated.

The Mounties says alcohol was not a factor in the drowning.

The name of the deceased won't be released until next of kin are notified.

Good turn-out for Blood Donor Clinic

It was a good turn-out on the first day of the Blood Donor Clinic at Thomas Aquinas
High School.

Canadian Blood Services says they had 152 people show up yesterday, donating 131 units of blood.

Harvey Heather from Canadian Blood Services says traditionally it difficult to get people
out to their summer blood donor clinics.

The Blood Donor Clinic will run from 9:30 to 12:30 today.