OPP Investigate Pickle Lake Fatality

A Thunder Bay man has succumbed to injuries sustained in a single vehicle crash on Umex Mine Road in Pickle Lake.

OPP say the incident occurred on March 16th and involved a  tractor trailer unit, carrying a bulldozer and large metal conatainer.

Police say the tractor trailer unit slid into an intersection and jacknifed while striking a snow bank.

The driver was transported to Thunder Bay Hospital with serious injuries.

Police say the man, 58-year-old Thomas Dufault, was released from Hospital on March 24th, but later died.

Five names expected on Federal Election Ballot

The election ballot could see a couple of more names added on in the Kenora riding in the next few weeks.

At least two more candidates are expected to file nomination papers before the May 2nd federal election.

The Green Party says it has nominated a new candidate.

Mike Schwindt, a teacher from the Poplar Hill First Nation will be carrying that party's colors during the 38 days campaign.

An independant candidate, Kelvin Chicago-Boucher is also talking about entering the election campaign.

St. Louis Tops local schools in Fraser Report

The Fraser Institute is out with its annual report card on Elementary Schools in Ontario, and this year a small school in Keewatin tops the list in this region.

St. Louis had the top mark of 7.6 out of ten.

Michael Thomas is one of the authors of the report and says they compile all the data from the Education, Quality and Accountability tests to come up with results.

Ste. Margarite Bourgeoys was just behind St. Louis at 7.2.

Valleyview had a rating of 5.8, while Pope John Paul was at 5.3 and  King George at 4.6 out of ten.

Hampton Critical of Northwest Jury Crisis

Kenora-Rainy River M.P.P. Howard Hampton is putting the blame on the McGuinty government for the jury crisis in the northwest.

The NDP critic says there is no reason a judge had to postpone a jury trial last week because there was not enough Aboriginals on the jury roll

Hampton says the government has been aware of the situation since 2008 and simply has not taken the issue seriously.

OPP in Rainy River Crack down on Drugs

The crackdown on drug trafficking continues in Northwestern Ontario.

Police have released some details surrounding 3-separate investigations in Rainy River and Emo on March 16th.

During the search of two homes, Police seized 34-marihuana plants and 860-grams of dried marihuana.

The street value of the drugs is estimated at nearly 52-thousand dollars and no charges have been laid yet.

In the third case, Police did charge a 57-year-old man after seizing a substancial quantity of money as well as roughly 45-hundred dollars worth of prescription pills.

Nielson wins Dominion Club Playdowns in Kenora

A Fort Frances area team has won the regional Dominion Curling Club Championships in

Kenora.

The Maury Nielson rink from the Stratton Curling Club finished the weekend with a perfect 4-0 record.

Nielson beat the Steve Lundin foursome in the final game of the round robin 8-3 to secure the right to attend the provincial playdowns next week in Sault Ste. Marie.

Lundin and Ted Shesky from Kenora finished in a three way tie for second with a

2-2 record.

DSAB to Give Back Money to Local Municipalities

Local municipalities can expect to get a rebate back from the Kenora District Services Board later this year.

The final audited financial statements for 2010 are just being completed chair of the services board, Phil Vinet says it looks as if they will be able to hand back about 550 thousand dollars.

Vinet says the rebates are the result of the reconciliation of the programs they provide, such as Ontario Works.

Kenora's share of the rebate is about 115 thousand dollars.

City`s Water Treatment Plant gets perfect score

The city's water treatment plant is getting top marks.

Council was presented the 2010 Water System report last week.

Councillor Rod McKay the report shows the water department is not only doing its job properly, but doing it very well.

The city is planning to upgrade the staff at the water treatment plant this year with the addition of an electrician.

Drug Bust on Airport Road

The OPP says it has seized over 40 thousand dollars worth of marjijuana during a drug bust on the Airport Road.

Late Last week the Regional Guns and Gang Unit, along with the Kenora Drug Enforcement Unit and the Kenora Street Crimes Team executed a search warrant.

Officers discovered over four and a half pounds of marijuana, along with five firearms and some drug production paraphenalia.

A 29 year old Thunder Bay man faces a number of charges, including production of drugs, possession of marijuana and unauthorized possession of a fire arm.

Kevin Zdep is due to appear in Kenora Court on May 24th to answer the charges.

Bearskin adds new plane to fleet

Starting in May, Bearskin Airlines are going to be putting a new aircraft to use.

A brand new 34 seat plane is expected to take flight and will fly from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg.

Bearskin Airlines vice president Cliff Friesen says the plane is larger and can carry more passengers.

The plane will also make stops in Sioux Lookout and Red Lake.

Army Worm infestation looming

Army Worms will invade the region's tree population in two summers from  now.

The last outbreak of the leaf eating caterpillars ended in 2004.

Ministry of Natural Resources Expert Taylor Scarr says in peak years army worms have caused slippery highways.

The furry insects have a 7 to 10 year outbreak cycle.

Community Improvement Plan Approved for Abitibi Lands

The City of Kenora is going to move ahead with a Community Improvement Plan for the Abitibi properties on 9th Street North.

Council passed a resolution last week approving a change to the official plan.

Councillor Rory McMillan says the intent of the Improvement Plan is to encourage development on the property.

There is still a 21 day appeal period for the Community Improvement Plan.

McMillan says the change to the official plan will go into effect once that appeal period is over.

Kenora Candidates Election Ready

The slate in the Kenora Riding for the May 2nd federal election has a familiar look.

All three main political parties will have the same candidates as the last election three years ago.

Tania Cameron is the NDP candidate and says she's actively been campaigning

for a couple of years now.

Liberal Candidate Roger Valley is also not stranger to the campaign trail and says he plans to get to as many communties as possible over the next 38 days.

Incumbant Conservative candidate, Greg Rickford has also been busy, opening his campaign office in Kenora just hours after the election writ was dropped in Ottawa.

There is also expected to be at least one independant candidate in the Kenora Riding this election.

Bronco Girls win OFSAA Consolation title

Beaver Brae's girls hockey team didn't win a medal at the All-Ontario

A/AA championships but they did get the consolation prize.

The Broncos won the consolation final 2-0 Friday afternoon in Stratford.

Beaver Brae was also presented with the sportmanship banner from the

tournament.

Meanwhile, the Wayne Fiecek foursome is home from the National Wheelchair curling Championships without a medal.

Fiecek's Northern Ontario squad finished the round-robin with a 4-5 record

and out of the play-offs at the Edmonton bonspiel.

Kenora Rockets dominate Fort Badminton Tournament

The Kenora Rockets had a big weekend at a junior badminton tournament in Fort Frances over the weekend.

Andrew Neil won the boys under 13 singles title and teamed up with Johnny Houlden for the double crown.

Tyler Neil won three gold medals, winning the Under 16 boysdivision, then teaming up with Logan Ginn in the boys double event, and Cayleigh Payne for the Mix doubles title.

Meanwhile, the Lake of the Woods Flyers struck gold at an Atom Girls hockey tournament in Winnipeg.

The Flyers beat Dryden 6-1 in the A-two final of the Stars Cup yesterday.

The Blue Sharks from Kenora won the bronze medal with a 2-1 win over

the Thompson, Tigers.

Kenora Hydro discovers cause of power outage

Kenora Hydro thinks its isolated the problem that caused a city-wide power outage.

Electricity to all Hydro customers in Kenora and Keewatin was out for about 45 minutes Wednesday afternoon.

President and CEO of Kenora Hydro, Dave Sinclair says they had a hardware malfunction which caused the black out.

He says the computer in question has since been taken off line, and they will be working with their vendor to find why the computer caused the outage.

OPP arrest suspect in Assault

A 51 year old man has been arrested following an assault in the Railway Street area of town.

The OPP say they were called out to a disturbance around 10:00  Wednesday morning.

Police say two men were involved in an altercation and one man had to be taken to hospital for treatment and later released.

John White of Kenora was arrested at the scene and has been charged with  Assault with a Weapon, Uttering threats and Mischief under five thousand dollars.

He appeared in Kenora Court yesterday on the charges.

Fire Fighters ask for old Fire Bell

Kenora's professional fire fighters are asking city council to review its decision not to move the old fire bell and call box from the

Fire Hall on Second Street South up to the new fire hall on Barsky's Hill.

President of the union, Fred Ralko says contrary to recent suggestions, fire fighters have done what they can to maintain the old bell.

Ralko has requested council revisit the city by-law, which designated the fire bell and call box as an integral part of the heritage building.

City gets Additional Funding from the Province

A bit of a bonus for the City of Kenora.

The provinical government is promising an extra 697 thousand dollars from

the Ontario Municipal Partnership fund.

Karen Brown is the city's chief adminstrative officer and says the extra money

actually has to do with Kenora's unusually high policing costs back in 2009.

Brown says the city borrowed money from reserves to help pay for the disbandment of the Kenora Police Service, and the money announced yesterday from the province will go back into reserves.

Big Trout Lake Girls dies of Hypothermia

The OPP say hypothermia is the likely cause of death of an 11 year old girl last weekend in Sioux Lookout.

The girl has been identified as Chloe Matthews from the Big Trout Lake First Nation.

She had been reported missing last Friday and her body was found the next day on the grounds of Sacred Heart School in Sioux Lookout.

The OPP's Criminal Investigations Branch says it is continuing to look into the circumstances surrounding her death.