Council Approves Additional Cash for the Library

The Kenora Public Library will receive an extra 98 thousand dollars this year to help cover off a projected deficit.

But city council isn't very happy about advancing the extra cash.

Councillor Ron Lunny supported the resolution to give the additional funding, but questioned how the Library consistantly managed to operate with a deficit over the past couple of years.

Council has agreed to provide an additional 52 thousand dollars this year to help cover the Library's budget deficit in 2011, and another 46 thousand to address an accumulated deficit over the past couple of years.

Hampton Touts NDP Platform

The MPP for Kenora-Rainy River says its time to put an end to damaging McGuinty policies.

Howard Hampton is about to embark on a tour of the Riding to promote the NDP Election platform.

Hampton outlines some of the highlights.

He says the NDP will also take the HST off hydro and heating bills as well as prices at the gas pump.

KDSB to lease new Defibrilators

The Kenora District Services Board has agreed to enter into a lease agreement to purchase 23-defibrillators for ambulances across the District.

The Board will spend 90-thousand dollars this year and 71-thousand dollars for each of the next 4-years to secure the new machines.

The move will save the Board about 46-thousand dollars compared to puchasing 5-machines per year.

14 of the current AED's are more than 10-years-old, well past the typical life of 5-years.

The KDSB says over the past 5 years they have had at least 3-major failures per year.

Village Corner Site in Vermillion Bay being Cleaned up

The clean-up of the Village Corner fire site in Vermillion Bay is underway.

Crews started demolition of the structure yesterday morning.

A fire ripped through the area landmark last Labour Day, leaving only the Casually Hip and Way North stores still standing.

Kenora BIZ ready to Celebrate Summer

A busy long weekend in Kenora.

Canada Day festivities will be book-ended by a couple of special events under the big tent on the Kenora harborfront.

Thursday night, the Winnipeg Symphony is in town and Saturday, Celebrate Summer makes a return.

Mort Goss is one of the people spear-heading the day-long event and says Harbortown BIZ is really the impetus behind Celebrate Summer.

Celebrate Summer will get underway at 1:00 on Saturday and wrap up just after 11:00 with a fireworks display.

OPP Summer Camp Taking place this week

Ontario Provincial Police have kicked off their annual youth summer camp in northwestern Ontario.

Forty young people aged 11 and 12 from across northwestern Ontario have gathered at Sunny Cove near

Fort Frances.

Constable Anne McCoy says they've plenty of activities to partake in.

McCoy says the camp aims to help youth through team building, mentoring, self-esteem exercises with police.

Residents Evacuated from New Osnaburgh prepare to return home

About 500 residents of the New Osnaburgh First Nation could return home as early as Friday, if the air quality continues to improve.

They were evacuated from the community near Pickle Lake a week ago to avoid smoke from a large forest fire.

A community official says the residents are anxious to go home.

About 300 firefighters are working on the fire, which officially remains out of control but did not reach the community.

KMTS Warns of Internet Scam

KMTS is warning of a scam that has been going around to some of its clients.

An e-mail notification has been sent out telling account holders about a phoney upgrade for an enhanced webmail user interface.

The letter says in order to save your e-mail address book in their data base, you have to send your password back to them in order to transfer your contacts.

KMTS stresses that this is a scam and urges its account holders not to give out their password to anyone.

Children's Aid Merge to Proceed on July 1st

The long talked about merger between two child care agencies in northwestern Ontario should be complete later this week.

Kenora-Patricia Child and Family Services will be joining forces with Family and Children Services of Rainy River as of July 1st.

The new children's aid society will be known as Kenora-Rainy River Districts Child and Family Services

The amalgamation process was supposed to be completed at the beginning of April, but some financial issues help up the merger.

Province Cuts Funding for Forest Access Roads

The provincial government is cutting the amount of money available to build and maintain forest access roads in northern Ontario.

The Ontario Forest Industries Association says it found out about the cut earlier this month.

Scott Jackson is a spokesperson for the OFIA and says the budget has been cut by 36 percent.

Jackson claims the Ministry of Northern Development of Mines and Forestry knew about the cut back in January but failed to inform anyone it would be taking place.

Council holds special meeting this afternoon

Kenora City Council will be meeting once more before Canada Day.

A special meeting is scheduled to take place this afternoon in council chambers to take care of a couple of last minute pieces of business.

That includes a review of a plea by the Kenora Public Library for more money to operate this year.

Council is also expected to award the tender for the municipal insurance policy this afternoon.

The council meeting is scheduled for 1:00.

Union Gas Rates Going Up

Its going to cost a bit more to heat your home with natural gas.

Union Gas says the Ontario Energy Board has approved a 5 percent rate increase as of July 1st.

Andrea Stass is a spokesperson for Union Gas and says the increase in gas prices is due to a couple of factors.

Stass says the increase in gas prices will cost the average homeowner about four dollars a month.

Funding for local child care groups announced

The Kenora District Services Board has approved funding under the National Child Benefit program.

A number of groups in the region will be getting funding under the program.

The Minto Resource Center has been promised 15 thousand dollars, while Triple Play will  receive 36 hundred dollars to help kids from low-income families play sports and participate in other social events.

The Services Board is leaving 50 thousand available for its Ontario Works Backpack program.

Rain temporarily Halts Growth of Pickle Lake Wildfire

Some 278 firefighters continue to battle a large forest fire burning outside New Osnaburgh First Nation.

The fire is now nearly 66-thousand hectares is size and is not under control.

Dave Jackson is with the Ministry of Natural Resources and he says rain has helped in fire fighting efforts.

An Emergency Area order has been placed in the Pickle Lake area with possible travel restrictions.

A record year for the Community Foundation

Its been a good year for the Kenora and Lake of the Woods Regional Community Foundation.

The Foundation held its annual spring granting ceremony on Friday and handed out more than 100 thousand dollars to 25 community groups.

Don Parfitt is chair of the Community Foundation and says they are finally starting to see some return on their investment's.

The Foundation also presented grants on behalf of the Moffatt Foundation out of Winnipeg and also the Canadian Pacific's Kenora Employees.

25 Local Groups receive funding from Community Foundation

Triple Play, the Kenora Public Library and the Town of Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls were some of the big winners in the annual granting ceremony.

Triple Play received the largest one time grant of 10 thousand dollars from the Moffatt Foundation, while the library received a number of smaller grants totally about 45 hundred dollars.

The Town of Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls also received three grants, two to help develop a community trail between Sioux Narrows and Nestor Falls, and the other to help furnish a new library in Nestor Falls.

Mail expected to begin moving again this week

The head of the postal workers' union says its members will obey a back-to-work order to end the lockout at Canada Post.

CUPW's Denis Lemelin says that's because the legislation sets out enormous fines in the case of defiance.

Plus, he believes the government would use any excuse to destroy the union should members defy the law and he says the union won't let it.

It's been more than three weeks since the union launched rotating strikes that led to Canada Post locking workers out June 15th.

Workers will begin today sorting the piles and piles of mail, with delivery to resume tomorrow.

Cancer Care Northwest Releases new plan

Cancer Care Northwest is embarking on a four year cancer plan for the region.

Vice President Michael Power says it will include a new integrated cancer screening program, which

will include the use of mobile clinics. 

Cancer Care Northwest also plans to start a new Palliative Care Program.

Pickle Lake Fire Continues to Grow

Fire crews are working round-the-clock to stop a raging wildfire from reaching New Osnaburgh First Nation.

The fire is blazing out-of-control about 9-kilometres east of the community.

It's been burning for two weeks and now covers nearly 58-thousand hecatres.

Smoke from the fire earlier forced the evacuation of the community.

An Emergency Area order has been placed in the Pickle Lake area with possible travel restrictions.

That may include the temporary closure of Highway 599.

Con. College Gets More Funding

The Provincial Government is stoking Confederation College's fires with a 4.2 million dollar funding announcement.

The money is going towards the college's Bio Energy research centre which will heat the REACH building.

President Pat Lang says it's a very positive green initiative for their Thunder Bay

campus.

The research facility will also provide hands on training for students in renewable fuel technologies.