Four more companies accept offers from province

Four more companies have accepted wood supply offers from the province.

It will create 38 new jobs and brining more than 250 people back to work.

These companies will use the proposed wood allocations to produce and produce traditional and new forest products and a variety of lumber for construction and clean-burning wood pellets for energy production

The Minister of Nothern Development Michael Gravelle says that our government wants to attract new investment in the forest sector.

The wood supply competition is aimed at putting Ontario's unused wood to work while the government takes steps to introduce a new forest tenure pricing system.

Trail Riders Season Review

With the snowmobile seaon coming to a close the Sunset Trail Riders are looking ahead for next season.

This year there was a few groomer problems but head of Communications Shaun Clifford says they sold lots of permits that gave the volunteers a burst of energy to get out there and keep plugging away on the trails.

Clifford also say that they are looking to replacing the groomer that burnt this season and also that that groomer will make a great parts groomer for the future.

Northern Ontario Summer Jobs For Students

There will be 42 hundred jobs created for students this summer in Northern Ontario.

The program is open to students between the ages of 15 and 30 who are planning to return to school in the fall.

The summer jobs program is part of the Open Ontario plan to help every student succeed in the future.

Minister of Northern Development Michael Gravelle says the programs can help students gain valuable experience and enrich their learning.

Gravelle also says they provide valuable mentoring experiences for employers and contribute to building a strong skills base for the north's economy.

Employers in Northern Ontario have until April 30th to apply for the subsidy.

NWO Stars Make Finals

The NWO Satrs have made it to the finals in the Juvenile triple A Finals.

Brandon Wolframe scored agoal and set up the game winner to get the Jr. B Stars past the Nipigon Elks 5-2 in the fourth game semi-finals in Thunder Bay.

The Stars will play the Northern Hawks in the finals and the winner of that will move on to the Keystone Cup Canadian Jr. B Hockey Championship in April in Sherwoodpark Alberta.

Kenora`s Jesse Bongfeldt gets second UFC Fight

Kenora's Jesse Bongfeldt is on the UFC's card for a Vancouver Pay-Per-View.
The UFC announced its fight line up for the June 11th in Vancouver for UFC 131.

Bongfeldt had his first fight in the UFC 124 event, where he fought with Rafael Natal.

The fight lasted all 3 rounds and was declared a draw. Bongfeldt holds a professional MMA record of 21-7-1.

He will be taking on Ultimate Fighter 11 winner Court McGee in Vancouver.

Another drug bust on Highway 17

The OPP have been busy with drug busts in the past seven days.

They made their 4th bust in the last week on Highway 17.

Yesterday the OPP stopped a vehicle on highway 17 and aressted the driver for providing false identification and was held while they conducted a search of the vehicle.

Where they found around 350 Oxycodone pills and 64 hundred dollars in cash.

The estimated value of this bust including the money found is 43 thousand dollars.



The 26 year old driver Chris Boswell of Winnipeg has been charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime.

Wheelchair Curling Championships

City council is helping a local team to pay for some of the costs to get to the Wheelchair Curling Championships.

At a council meeting yesterday afternooon council announced that they will be giving 5 hundred dollars to Team Ficek to help offset the costs of attending the National Championships in Edmonton next week.

Harbourfront Tent Progress

City council has announced that KMA Contracting will be given the contract for the Harbourfront tent.

Council will be saving 30 thousand dollars by extending the completion date.

Major Dave Canfeild says that before they can proceed the current construction must first be completed.

Canfeild says that he is possitive that council will be able to dig up some more money to complete construction. Also that he is pleased that the contract is coming in under budget.

Lakeview Drive Sinage

It is looking good for Pattison Outdoor Advertising for a new state of the art sign in Kenora.

Rob Sedgwick of Pattison was in Kenora this morning to have a meeting with city council.

Sedgwick says that his company will be in charge of taking down the exsisting sinage before they can install their sign.

Sedgwick also says that it isn't going to like live tv and will not be distracting to motorists.

Kenora Thistles Vs. Thunder Bay Kings

The triple "A" Thunder Bay Kings finished off the Thistles yesterday afternoon.

Game 3 of the HNO Regional Playdowns was an upsetting finish for the Thistles and the Thistle arena.

The Kings finished them off with a score of 4-1.

The Thistles didn't score till the 3rd period when when Brennan Dubchak netted his first goal of the weekend.

On a positive note the Senior Thistlesbeat the Fort Frances Thunder Hawks in a Shootout 4-3 on Saturday night in Fort Frances.

Another Drug Seizure

The OPP have made another drug seizure.
On Friday the OPP were conducting a RIDE program in Vermillion Bay, when officers saw a black Ford truck attempting to avoid the check stop.

They then pulled the truck over and further investigation revealed that the 22 year old driver David Cunninham of Vermillion Bay was in possesion of around 286 grams of pot.

The pot has a street value of around 53 hundred dollars.

Cunniham has been charged with drug related charges and is due to appear in Dryden court on May 2nd.

Winter Carnival hands out money to local charities

The organizing committee for Kenora's Winter Carnival says it paid out over

94 hundred dollars to eight different charities as part of the Charity Challenge.

Its A Dog's Life was the big winner, collecting over 38 hundred dollars.

The animal welfare charity sold 29 hundred buttons, which was the most of
any charity registered in the challenge.

The Lake of the Woods Hospital was the runner up and earned just over
12 hundred dollars in the Charity Challenge.

Hospital board seeking new members

Lake of the Woods District Hospital is having a tough time signing up new members.

The hospital board wants to get as many memberships as possible by the end of this month for the corporate elections taking place in June.

Under the hospital by-laws, you have to be a member for at least 60 days to be eligible to run for a position on the board.

The hospital advertised widely last month trying to drum up interest in the corporate memberships, but so far very few people have expressed interest.

The corporate memberships cost just five dollars.

March Break Weather Woes

Today might not be the best day to begin your March Break.

A blizzard warning has been issued for southern Manitoba, and

the Kenora area is expected to get about 10 centimeters of snow

overnight.

Bill Laidlaw from Signal Weather Services says things will likely

stay dry until later this afternoon.

The good news is the system should pass by tomorrow, and sunshine is expected again for Sunday and Monday.

Schaeffer Inquest Wraps up Today

An inquest has heard that a Peterborough man had started to turn his life around just three years before being shot and killed by police on a remote lake in northwestern Ontario.

Levi Schaeffer was 30 years old when he was killed by officers investigating a stolen boat on Osnaburgh Lake near Pickle Lake.

The inquest has heard that Schaeffer was wielding a knife and a can of bear spray while charging at Constable Kris Wood who shot him twice.

Schaeffer's mother, Ruth, testified he was diagnosed with panic and personality disorders.

Wood has testified he had no other option to deal with Schaeffer and that he feared for his life.

The inquest is to wrap up today.

Ontario Court of Appeal Orders Judicial Inquiry into local jury rolls

The Ontario Appeal Court has ordered a judicial inquiry into whether the jury roll in northwestern Ontario represents the community.

The court decision comes from concerns about aboriginal representation on juries in two coroners' inquests.

The families of Jacy Pierre, who died of an overdose in jail, and Reggie Bushie, went to the court after they couldn't get answers from officials on the roll used for the inquest juries.

The juries are taken from a roll compiled by the sheriff from municipal assessment lists but aboriginals living on reserves are not on the list.

Terry Waboose, of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, says the decision confirms the extent of stonewalling from government they have faced.

Municipal Cultural Policy Being Developed

The City of Kenora is getting some funding from the provincial government to

help draft a municipal cultural plan.

The first stage in the process took place last night with a workshop involving interested local residents.

Economic Development Officer for the city, Jennifer Findlay says the timing for such a policy seems to be right.

Findlay says the Municipal Cultural Plan will not only include an inventory of local groups involved in the arts and heritage, but also include some goals to work towards.

Canadian Arrow finalizes the purchase of more claims in Kenora area

While there has been a boom in gold exploration activities in northwestern Ontario recently, other metals haven't been as fortunate.

Canadian Arrow says it was forced to curtail its plans for the Kenbridge nickel property southeast of Kenora for the past three years due to the economic downturn.

Company spokesperson, Kim Tyler says things are slowly starting to rebound.

Tyler says Canadian Arrow has just completed the aquisition of the Denmark Lake group of claims, next to its Kenbridge site and is hoping they will be able to resume exploration in the not too distant future.

Two more Drug Busts for the OPP's Traffic Unit

For the third time in three days the OPP have seized a quantity of drugs during routine traffic stops near Kenora.

Wednesday evening around 8:30, a vehicle was stopped on Highway 17 east of Kenora and about seven thousand dollars worth of marijuana was seized.

In a second incident, just after 2:00 Thursday morning, officers stopped another vehicle on the Kenora By-Pass and seized over 22 thousand dollars worth of drugs, including 1.3 pounds of marijuana, a couple of ounces of cocaine and some codeine pills.

Co-incidentally, all three men who were arrested were from Dryden.

They all face charges of trafficking in a narcotic.

MNR Employee presented the Kallemeyn Award

The Lake of the Woods Water Quality Forum has wrapped up for another year, and a local MNR employee has been singled out for his work.

Tom Mosindy was presented the Larry Kallemeyn Award this week.

Executive Director of the Lake of the Woods Water Sustainability Foundation Todd Sellars says Mosindy was honored largely for his work on the lake trout fishery.

The two day water quality conference wrapped up yesteday in International Falls.