Keewatin Teams leads after Day 1 of KBI

The Keewatin duo of Behn Carlson and John Pearson have the distinction of leading the Kenora Bass International after day one.

They hauled in 19.55 pounds of bass yesterday, more than two pounds better than the second place team of Darren Marcine and Bart Stebnitsky.

In third place is the local team of Bruce and Tony Griffiths, at 16.85 pounds.

Team Canada leads the Can/Am Challenge by over 19 pounds after the first day of fishing.

Second day weigh-ins will take place at 4:00 this afternoon.

Harborfest Breaks Even

Harborfest organizers suggest that despite huge crowds over the weekend, the weekend event likely only broke even.

Dave Blake is one of the directors and says despite record bar sales Friday and Saturday night, they probably only managed to cover their costs.

Blake says they will be evaluating the success of the event over the next few weeks.

Blake says they expect to have a final report on Harborfest 2010's finances in the
next few weeks.

More Beach Closures announced

The Health Unit has been forced to close down three more beaches
for the weekend.

Recent test results for Rabbit Lake Beach, Garrow Beach and Anicinabe Beach show unacceptible bacteria levels.

The Health Unit conducts routine testing of the beaches during the summer and says water quality tests at the three beaches showed high levels of e-coli.

The beaches will be closed until water quality tests improve.

Council opposes Beach Warning Notices

Beach warnings being posted by the Northwestern Health Unit aren't being well received by Kenora City Council.

The Health Unit has started posted warning signs following heavy rain events about possible bacterial contamination.

Colleen Neil is Kenora's Recreation Services Manager and says right now the signs are causing a lot of confusion.

Council says that Kenora's beaches are part of our Tourism Marketing Campaign and having a blanket warning sign posted at them is not very tourist-friendly.

Council wants to work with the health unit on making the signs less alarming.

Funding Announced for Wincrief

A Kenora forest company is getting just over 1.2 million dollars in funding from the proincial government.

Northern Development, Mines and Forestry Minister Michael Gravelle announced  the funding at Wincrief Forestry Products Thursday morning.

Gravelle says the joint partnership between Moncrief Construction and Wabaseemung First Nation is the type of activity the province is interested in promoting.

The manufacturing facility on the Redditt Road currently employs about 20 people with
plans to double that number when the facility is fully operational.

Another Taser Incident in Northwestern Ontario

A 48 year old man faces a long list of charges following an alleged sexual assault on the Couchiching First Nation near Fort Frances.
Treaty Three Police say they were on patrol early Sunday morning when they heard a woman cryout for help.

A 40 year old woman was located near Highway 11 and was taken to hospital for treatment.
Following an investigation, officers tried to arrest Michael Robert Morriseau at a home in the community.

He fled the residence, but was apprehended by oficer a short time later.

While he was being arrested, police say Morriseau brought out a knife, which he
refused to give up.

Officers then used a Taser on the suspect.

He was finally taken into custody and charged with sexual assault, aggravated
assault, assaulting police, uttering threats and possession of a dangerous weapon.

New Gateway Signage for Kenora

The City of Kenora could soon see some new signage entering the community.

The Property and Planning Committee has awarded a contract for two new gateway signs.

Mike Newton had the winning bid for the project, which features a triagular sign holder, which will sport the new City of Kenora logo.

The city has set aside 50 thousand dollars for the project, but councillor Wendy Cuthbert says the winning design came in under budget.

A total of four designs were submitted for the gateway signs.

OPP arrest Drunk and Speeding Driver

A case of maybe too much liquid courage?

A 25-year-old man has been arrested after he was clocked driving 157-kilometres on the Kenora By-pass.

Officers noticed that the driver had been drinking and he failed a roadside test.

Bryan Hawrysh of Kenora faces counts of impaired driving and street racing.

More Fire Rangers heading west

Another one hundred Ministry of Natural Resource forest firefighters will depart for British Columbia this afternoon.

There are currently over two-hundred MNR personnel now in that province, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Fire Information Officer Debbie MacLean says more personnel will be provided if called upon.

Of the MNR personnel in the west, 75 are from the west fire region with another 63 to be part of today's deployment.

Due to all the rain in recent weeks, the fire hazard is low across most of northwestern Ontario

and no new fires have been reported in several days. 

Drug Bust on By-Pass

A routine traffic stop on the Kenora By-Pass has resulted in the seizure of a large quanity of marijuana.

The OPP say they stopped a vehicle for speeding Tuesday on Highwyay 17-A.

The driver confirmed to police that he had a suspended licence.

Officer also felt the operator of the vehicle was behaving in an unusual manner and conducted a search.

Police say 18 pounds of marijuana with a street value of about 167 thousand dollars was seized, along with about 500 dollars in cash and some drug paraphenalia.

30 year old Christopher Dawe from British Columbia was arrested and charged with
possession for the purpose of trafficking and trafficking in a narcotic.

He appeared in Kenora court yesterday to face the charges.

Treaty Three Critical of SIU Report

Grand Council Treaty #3 continues to be critical of the OPP response to a shooting incident in downtown Kenora.

The Ontario Special Investigations Unit released a report into the shooting of 39 year old Grassy Narrows resident last week clearing an OPP officer of any wrong-doing.

Grand Chief Diane Kelly says she's disappointed with the finds in the report and also the policies and procedures of the OPP.

She says the whole incident raises questions about why a lone female officer was sent to a domestic violence incident.

She also wonders why it took the OPP over 50 minutes to inform the SIU about the shooting.

Kelly says if she can't get answers from the OPP Commissioner or Ontario's Solicitor General, she will file a complaint with the Independant Police Review Director.

KBI Can-Am Challenge Teams Introduced

Anglers are gearing up for the 22nd annual Shaw Kenora Bass International.


The three day fishing derby gets underway tomorrow morning from the Kenora
Harborfront.

This morning, the members of the Can/Am Challenge were introduced.

Jeff Gustafson is a member of Team Canada and says so far pre-fishing has
been pretty slow.

Weigh-ins will take place at 4:00 tomorrow and Friday and
3:00 on Saturday under the big tent on the Harborfront.

Busy long weekend for the OPP

The OPP in Kenora were kept hopping ove the August Long Weekend.


The final tally shows 358 calls for service, including 64 liquor licence Act Offenses, 15 motor vehicle collisions and 13 mischief complaints.

Constable Dave Cain of the OPP say officers are also looking into a couple more serious complaints.

Cain adds that a 26 year old Kenora man was also charged with careless driving after a vehicle rolled over on St. Clair Street in Keewatin on Saturday.

KBI starts tomorrow

One of the biggest sporting events of the year in Kenora takes place this weekend.

The 22nd annual Kenora Bass International gets underway tomorrow morning from the Harborfront.

This is the first year as chair of the fishing tournament for Duncan McEwan and he says they are still looking for last minute entries.

So far 129 teams have entered KBI.

Anglers hit the water at 6:30 tomorrow morning.

Drowning in Falcon Lake

A little horseplay turned to horror yesterday when a Toronto teen

slipped under the waves of Falcon Lake and never surfaced again.

A group of 12 men and boys from Ontario had been in Winnipeg for
a Muslim religious convention when they decided to make a pit stop
at Falcon Lake for brunch and fun before beginning the long drive
back home.

A spokesman for the group says three teens hopped in a canoe that
was lying around and went out in the water without lifejackets.

The spokesman says the 17-year-old was fooling around and stood
up in the canoe, causing it to tip.

Traffic Changes in Stores for Downtown Kenora

The City of Kenora is planning to do some minor traffic tweaking in the downtown core.


A couple of public meetings were held last month to get feedback on how to improve
traffic flow for both vehicles and pedestrians.

Operations manger Rick Perchuck says one of the annoyances for pedestrians is the
length of time it takes to cross Main Street at the First Street intersection.

Perchuck is also recommending that the left hand turn from Main Street onto First Street South
be eliminated altogether during the day to prevent traffic build up.

Council is expected to vote on the changes at its open meeting next Monday.

Kenora OPP Taser Twice

It was a busy weekend for the Kenora OPP.


In fact, things got to the point early Saturday morning officers were forced to
use Tasers to get things under control after the Friday night Harborfest Concert.

Officers tasered two people who they believe were preventing officers from breaking up a fight on the harbourfront.

Constable Dave Cain says the officers were in their rights to use the weapons.

Cain says the two crowd members refused to obey officer's demands to stand back and acted in an aggressive manner.

JM Judoists Medal at International Tournament

Two members of the Jaffray Melick Judo Club medalled at a huge tournament in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

over the weekend.

Kaitie Dennis won a silver medal, after advancing to the gold medal match in the 57 kilo
division.

Ben Dennis took home a bronze medal after losing to the eventual gold medal winner
in the boys 44 kilo division.

Over one thousand fighters from 100 countries took part in the weekend tournament.

Council Race Heats Up

Another person has thrown his hat into the ring for the race for Kenora City Council.


Gregary Potvin is the fifth person to submit nomination papers for the October 25th
municipal elections.

A total of six council seats are up for grabs, along with the mayoralty.

The deadline to submit nomination papers is September 10th.

A wet July confirmed

If you thought July was a wet month in the Kenora area you'd be right.


CJRL meteorologist, Bill Laidlaw says we were drenched by 198 millimeters
of rain last month, which is about double the average for July.

Temperatures were also slightly above normal for this time of year.

The average daily mean temperature last month was about a degree
higher than usual.