Kenora OPP Make Drug Bust on Bypass

Another major drug bust for the Kenora OPP.

Officers say they stopped a vehicle on the Kenora By-Pass near the Redditt  Road intersection for speeding early this morning.

Following a short investigation, police decided to search the vehicle and found about 25 pounds of marijuana.

The OPP say the pot has a street value of about 200 thousand dollars.

27 year old Matthew Hill from Calgary appeared in Kenora Court today on a charge of possession for the purpose of trafficking.

Kasabonika Lake Evacuates Due to Flooding

A remote northwestern Ontario First Nation has declared a state of emergency due to flooding.

Emergency Management Ontario says a partial evacuation of the Kasabonika Lake First Nation is underway.

About 150 vulnerable residents and their caregivers are being taken to Hearst and Greenstone.

Officials say rangers and volunteers have filled 25-hundred sandbags to protect vulnerable homes from flooding.

Roughly 866 people live on the reserve.

Update on Car Accident in Downtown

Kenora OPP have confirmed that an occupant of the car that drove up the Shoppers Drug Mart parking lot on Saturday evening has died.

Police say they are awaiting the results of post-mortem before releasing any information on the victim.

The accident took place on Saturday afternoon when a car driving on First Avenue South hit the embankment by Shoppers Drug Mart and ended up on top of the retaining wall.

Police had traffic rerouted through downtown for over 3 hours as they cleared the scene.

We will have more details has they are released.

Fire Hazard Edging Up

The forest fire hazard is moderate to high with some areas tipping up into the extreme range.

There were 4-new fires in the northwest region over the weekend.

Three of the fires were in the Dryden area.

5-fires continue to burn but no problems are anticipated.

Beaver Brae Earns Eco-School Status

Things are looking green at Beaver Brae High School.

Environmental Science Teacher Nancy Wagenaar says the secondary school just received recognition for their ecological intiatives.

Wagenaar says a lot of work went into the eco-accreditation.

She says the process included school activities, school yard greening and the mechanics of the school to promote energy savings.

Private School to Open in Quetico Center?

The education community is buzzing with word that a private high school is about to open at the former Quetico Center near Atikokan.  

It's the brainchild of Toronto's Michael Heaton who says he's shooting  for a September opening.

Heaton says tuition for the new school will be 39 thousand 500 dollars a year.

He
hopes to open the school  with an about 30 students.

NW Business Center Closes Dryden Office

The Northwest Business Center is losing one of its offices in the region.

The business Center which has an office in Kenora, is closing its Dryden office due to money issues.

However, Manager Diane Schwartz-Williams says all is not lost.

She says they will continue to offer programs through their Kenora office, using virtual technology.

Schwartz-Williams says there's an opportunity to reopen the Dryden office down the road, but there needs to be some funding.

Fire Destroys Motorhome on Trans-Canada

A scary incident for a motorist on Highway 1 in Manitoba over the weekend.

The Falcon Lake RCMP says a motorhome, towing a car, caught fire and went up in flames near the Pinegrove Rest Area around 10:30 Saturday morning.

The Mounties say the fire gutted both vehicles.

Police say both occupants managed to escape unharmed.

The cause of the fire appears to have been mechanical in nature.

Deadline for Big Game Tags Nears

Attention hunters, you can still apply for the 2013 Big Game Draws.

Ministry of Natural Resources Spokesperson Michelle Nowak says residents in Northwestern Ontario can hunt moose or antlerless deer.

Applications for moose can be made till May 31st and antlerless deer till July 2nd.

For more information you can log onto:

 www.ontario.ca/hunting or call 1-800-288-1155.

NorWOSSA Single A Play-Offs Begin Today

The NorWOSSA Soccer play-offs will be taking place on two fronts this week.

Starting this morning, the Single "a" championships will be taking place in Sioux Lookout.

Both the Thomas Aquinas boys and girls teams will be in action.

The Saints girls are up first with a semi-final game at 9:00, while the T.A. boys will play their semi-final at 11:00.

The NorWOSSA Double A play-offs will take place in Dryden on Wednesday.