NorWOSSA Finals

The Thomas Aquinas boys volleyball teams are the king of the court in northwestern Ontario.

The Saints won both gold medals up for grabs at the NorWOSSA single "a" championships this morning.

The T.A. senior boys had an easy time with Atikokan, sweeping the Voyageurs in three

straight sets.

Thomas Aquinas has won two consecutive OFSAA championships and now has an automatic berth into the All-Ontario finals later this month in Hamilton.

Meanwhile, the Saints junior boys also won gold, beating Atikokan in three straight sets.

In Fort Frances at the NorWOSSA Double "a" championships, just one Beaver Brae team has advanced

to the finals.

The Bronco senior boys volleyball team swept Fort Frances in three straight sets in the semi-final

this morning and now face Dryden tonight in the gold medal game.

The three other Beaver Brae Teams in action lost in the semi-finals.

School Board votes to Close Evergreen

Trustees with the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board have voted unanimously to close Evergreen School at the end of this school year.

The recommendation was made by school board administration after receiving and reviewing the Kenora Acccommodation Review Committee's final report.

The committee recommended the closure of Evergreen in four years, but superintendant of Business Dean Carrie says administration felt they had to move a little more quickly to deal with their population decline at the elementary school level.

The public school board estimates it will be able to save about 80 thousand dollars a year by closing Evergreen.

Carrie adds they will begin the process of seeking funding for a new school at Valleyview as soon as possible.

Temperature Records Continue to Fall

The temperature records continue to fall across northwestern Ontario.

A number of communities across the region enjoyed record high temperatures

yesterday.

Kenora hit 14.6 degrees, shattering the previous record of 11.1 back in 1969.

Atikokan was the hot spot in the area once again topping out at 15.6 degrees, breaking the previous record of 13.3.

Dryden, Fort Frances and Red Lake all broke records yesterday as well.

Circus Kids Fundraiser

Get ready to send in the clowns.

The Circus Kids are holding a fundraising dinner tonight to help support its

on-going operations.

Jack Martin is one of the people behind the Circus Kids program and says they will have a couple of special guests performing after supper.

The dinner will take place at 5:30 tonight at Knox United Church, followed immediately after by the magic show.

NorWOSSA Play-offs Continue Today

There will be no gold or even a silver lining for the Thomas Aquinas junior girls basketball team.

The Saints lost their semi-final game against Sioux Lookout yesterday 40-36.

The Warriors now move onto the NorWOSSA Single "a" final against Rainy River this afternoon.

Three Thomas Aquinas teams have byes into today's gold medal games.

The T.A. junior boys volleyball team take on Atikokan at 9:00 this morning, while the Saints Senior boys face the Voyageurs at 11:00.

The Thomas Aquinas Senior Girls basketball team faces Rainy River in NorWossa final at 1:00 at the T.A. gym.

Hospital still experiencing bed shortage

Lake of the Woods District Hospital is still experiencing high patient volumes.

Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital, Marc Belcaen says there are still a number of patients waiting for a long term care bed in the community.

Belcaen didn't want to comment too much on the situation, but did say hopefully something will soon be done to ease the bed shortage locally.

He says ultimately he would like to see some interim long term care beds in Kenora to
help deal with the bed shortage at the hospital.

NOMA Calls for New Infrastructure Program

Ontario Infrastructure Minister Bob Chirralli is being asked to change the infrastructure funding formula.

Outgoing president of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association Anne Krassilowsky made the call during a meeting with the Minister this week.

Krassilowsky stresses the current formula is putting area communities in a bind.

She stresses that you can only raise the taxes so high before it becomes unaffordable to fund essential projects.

Local Legions prepare for Remembrance Day

Local legions are getting ready for their annual Remembrance Day Ceremonies.

Part of the annual rite includes the sale of poppies.

Jim Day is the sergeant-at-arms for the Kenora Legion and says while donations
for the poppies are welcome, its not mandatory.

Remembrance day ceremonies will take place at the Kenora Legion, the Keewatin
Legion and the Redditt Legion starting at 10:30 tomorrow morning.

SIU clears Red Lake OPP officer

The Ontario Special Investigations Unit has cleared the OPP in Red Lake of any

wrong-doing in the death of a North Spirit Lake Man this pas summer.

41 year old Dalius Kakegamic was picked up on a criminal charge on June 14th,
but began experience medical problems.

He was initially taken to hospital in Red Lake, but was then airlifted to the Regional

Health Sciences Center in Thunder Bay a week later.

Kakegamic died on June 21st.

The SIU says there is no evidence to show that Kakegamic was mistreated while
in custody.

SIU director, Ian Scott suggests that Kakegamic's rapid decline and death

were likely due to a pre-existing medical condition.

NorWOSSA Court Sport Finals this week

The NorWOSSA double and single "a" boys volleyball and girls basketball finals are taking place this week.

Single "a" play-offs begin today at Thomas Aquinas with the semi-finals.

Three Saint teams have bye's into tomorrows gold medal games, so the only T.A. squad in action today is the junior girls basketball team.

The Saints take on Sioux Lookout today for the right to advance to tomorrows final.

That game begins at noon.

Meanwhile, the double "a" play-offs are taking place in Fort Frances tomorrow.

All of Beaver Brae's court sport teams are in the semi-finals.

Former OPP officer faces several years in prison

The Crown says a former OPP officer who sexually molested boys for most of  his policing career deserves 10 to 12 years behind bars.

The prosecutor in an Orangeville court said Robert Lewis has never admitted guilt, expressed remorse or taken responsibility for his actions.

Lewis is a former OPP officer who served in Minaki and Whitedog in the 70's.

Court heard that the now 63-year-old man used his position for more than 25 years to molest the boys, even in his police cruiser, while in uniform.

The defence is arguing for a term of five to seven years.

Paving begins on the Redditt Road

Expect traffic to move slowly on parts of Highway 658 for the next couple of days.

Pioneer Construction has begun paving a four kilometer stretch of the Redditt Road

just north of the Highway 17-A intersection.

The work is expected to last all week long, including patching a number of other

locations along that stretch of highway.

Funding for the project is from the federal/provincial infrastructure program.

Province working on a 10 year infrastructure plan

The McGuinty government is getting input on a new 10 year plan for funding road, sewer and building projects.

Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli believes such a plan would be very valuable for local communities and agencies.

Chiarelli met with representitives from school boards, municipalities and first nation

communities from northwestern Ontario yesterday.

NOSM Board ratifies contract with support staff

Finally, some labor peace at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.

The strike by support staff is now over after the school's board of directors voted to ratify a new contract with OPSEU Local 677.

Dean Dr. Roger Strasser is happy business can get back to normal.

The contract is for 3 years, but a back to work date still has to be worked out.

Fort Hope Crisis gets national exposure

The crisis on the Fort Hope First Nation is starting to get some national exposure.

The wives of the Governor General and Ontario's Lieutenant General toured the community that recently declared a state of emergency last week.

Former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine says the arsons and murders in the community all stem from poverty.

Fontaine says he feels for the community and understands that it's a huge challenge.

New Fire Hall getting ready to open

Work continues to get the new fire hall on Barsky's Hill ready for occupancy.

The opening ceremonies for the fire hall will take place in just under three weeks, on Monday, November 29th.

However, members of Kenora City Council will get a sneak preview of the six million dollar construction project.

A special meeting of the outgoing council has been scheduled for November 18th.

Fire chief Warren Brinkman says he wanted to give the council that approved the funding for the project a chance to see the building first hand, before they leave office.

Brinkman adds that they are still waiting for furnishings to be delivered to the new fire hall and for final inspections to be completed.

Local hockey teams struggle on the road

A tough weekend for the Thomas Aquinas boys hockey team.

The Saints were in Red Lake for a pair of exhibition game, but lost both.

On Friday night, T.A. arrived late at the Cochenor Arena and their game never really got on track, sustaining a 12-4 loss.

Saturday, the Saints played a little better but still were doubled up 8-4.

Jared Snyder and Colt Manson led the offense with three points each in the

weekend series.

Meanwhile, the Kenora Triple "a" midget Thistles didn't fare much better.

They were on the road for a pair of games and suffered two one goal losses.

Saturday, the Thistles were edged 3-2 by the Central Plains Capitals.

On Friday, a similar result, as the Kenora Midgets were beaten 4-3 by the Pembina

Valley Hawks in a shootout.

Fire on the Redditt Road

Fire has caused extensive damage to a building on the Redditt Road.

The blaze broke out just before 7:00 last night in a workshop/studio about a
kilometer north of the Kenora By-Pass intersection.

Kenora's Fire and Emergency Services department was called out and a

number of pumper trucks were dispatched to shuttle water from a hydrant
about two kilometers away on Veteran's Drive.

The building was unoccupied at the time of the fire and no one was injured.

Fire Chief Warren Brinkman says at this time is looks as though the fire may

have been caused by an electrical malfunction in the workshop area.

Warm Weather Records Set

The unseasonably warm weather is expected to continue for at least three more days.

Yesterday, Kenora hit a record high for November 7th, topping out at 13.5 degrees, which was just a shade warmer than the previous record of 13.3 in 1969.

Bill Laidlaw from Signal Weather Services says there is the possibility of more records this week.

Laidlaw says both Ear Falls and Atikokan also set temperature records yesterday.

Atikokan was the hot spot in the region at 14 degrees.

Crime Prevention Week

The Kenora OPP have a busy schedule for Crime Prevention Week.

There will be a community presentation tomorrow night.

Constable Dave Cain Says that it is going to be called "Women Traveling Alone."

Cain also says that there will be a Community Awareness open house on Wednesday at the Lakewood School Cafeteria, as well as a variety of school programs all week long.