All-Day Kindergarten popular at St. Louis

The Kenora Catholic District School Board says its had good response

to its all-day junior and senior Kindergarten classes at St. Louis school.

The all-day classes will begin in the fall, and acting director of education,
Kevin Debnam says they will have a full complement of students in the
program.

42 kids have been signed up for junior and senior kindergarten classes.

He adds that they will also be working with a third party to provide before
and after class supervision.

City offers free land for Ambulence Base

With both the City of Kenora and the Kenora District Services Board divided on a suitable location for a new Land Ambulance Base, Kenora Council has offered free property on Barsky's Hill.


In a letter to the KDSB, Mayor Len Compton offers property located in the 14th Street North and Mellick Avenue area, at no cost to the Board.

The Board has formed a Task Force to work with the City on the proposed site.

However, some Unincorporated members are concerned with some of the wording in the letter.

Compton writes the property may provide a unique opportunity for an integrated emergency service delivery model in the future.

One member stressed the KDSB is not looking to integrate emergency services.

Battle over Land Ambulence Base Continues

The Political battle between the Kenora District Services Board and the City of Kenora over the location of a new land ambulance base continues.


Frustrations peaked once again at the Annual Board meeting in Dryden Thursday as a motion was presented to members.

The motion went into great detail how efforts to acquire property in the City have been met with resistence and opposition at every opportunity and that the Board should look outside the City to build.

Bill Blower moved the motion and admits it was the build-up of 10-years of frustration.

Kenora Councilor Rory McMillan says the City has been more then open to suggestions and notes they have their own concerns.

McMillan says Council wants to see a central location for the base, given that 64-percent of their high priority calls are in Town.

The resolution was defeated by the Board.

Timmins Hunter Fined

A Timmins Ontario man has been banned from hunting for one year for shooting a deer on private property.


Sylvain Gravel was charged last year after admitting to shooting the deer to a Ministry of Natural Resources conservation officer who was investigating a complaint of a hunter trespassing on private land near Split Rock Rock in Sifton township, northeast of Fort Frances.

Gravel was also fined three-thousand dollars.

Police release name of North Spirit Lake man

The name of the North Spirit Lake First Nation man who died a week after being taken into Red Lake OPP custody has been released.


The Special Investigations Unit says 41-year-old Dalius Kakekagumick passed away at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre on Monday.

The Unit has so far identified one officer and eightwitnesses as part of its investigation.

The SIU has not said why Kakekagumick was taken into custody, or the cause of death.

Hampton opposes SuperCorp

Kenora-Rainy River MPP Howard Hampton is not impressed with what he calls is the latest McGuinty Government "scheme".

The Liberals are looking at selling portions of Hydro One, Ontario Power Generation, Ontario Lottery and the Liquor Control Board to raise money.

Hampton says Ontario residents have seen this movie before.

The NDP member calls it a pre-election bribe, using taxpayer dollars.

Safe Grad ready to roll

Graduation ceremonies for both Beaver Brae and Thomas Aquinas students will take place

this evening.

Following the individual ceremonies, all the graduates are invited to the Kenora Rec. Center for
the 10th annual Safe Grad celebrations.

Warren Brinkman is chair of Safe Grad and says they are keeping their 10th anniversary plans
under wraps right now.

Brinkman says graduates from Wabaseemung, Grassy Narrows and Whitefish Bay have also
been invited to attend the Safe Grad celebrations.

Events will be going on all night long at the Rec. Center.

Catholic School Board approves Budget

Both local school boards are planning to run deficits in the upcoming school year.

The Kenora Catholic District School Board approved its 2010/2011 budget last night.

It includes a 56 thousand dollar shortfall.
Erica Baily is the finance manager for the separate school board and says transportation
costs are the main reason behind this years deficit.

Total spending for the Catholic School Board next year will be about 19 million dollars.

Earlier this week, the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board announced it would also
be operating with a 1.5 million dollar deficit in the next school year.

OPP lay charges against Grassy Narrows woman

A 39 year old Grassy Narrows Woman faces four charges stemming from an incident
over two weeks ago in downtown Kenora that resulted in her being shot by police.

The OPP say that Helen Proulx is charged with assault with a weapon, assaulting
police, uttering death threats and possessing a weapon dangerous to the public peace.

OPP seargant Shelley Garr says its unclear when Proulx will be able to face the
charges in court because she's still recovering from her injuries in hospital.

Proulx was shot by an OPP officer on June 7th on 1st Street South.

The incident is also under investigation by the Special Investigations Unit.

Rickford reflects on last session of Parliament

Members of Parliament are on their Summer break and the MP for Kenora believes a lot was accomplished during the recent session.

Greg Rickford says it took some time, but everyone learned to get along in the end.

Rickford notes key Legislation related to free trade, immigration, employment insurance and parole eligibility all passed in the House of Commons.

Smoke gets in your Eyes

A shift in the wind direction has brought with it an unpleasant air mass to the region.
Late yesterday afternoon, smoke from fires burning in northern Manitoba
started wafting into northwestern Ontario.

Both the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Kenora Fire Department have
received calls from local residents wondering where the smoke was coming from.

About 40 fire rangers from northwestern Ontario are in northern Manitoba battling
wild fires there.

The fire situation in this region remains very quiet.

Just one new blaze was reported yesterday in the Thunder Bay District.

Whitedog resident tasered

Treaty Three Police say they had to use a taser in order to de-fuse a domestic situation on the Wabaseemung First Nation.

Police were called out just before midnight on June 18th to a home on Whitedog.

Officers say they witnessed man holding a weapon to a woman's neck.

They entered the house and told the man to drop his weapon.

He refused and as a result, the suspect was tasered.

He was taken into custody without injury.

32 year old William Boyd has been charged with assault with a weapon,
possession of a weapon, uttering threats and forcible confinement.

He's due to appear in Kenora Court later this morning.

Children's Aid Merge proposed

Two northwestern Ontario children's aid agencies are awaiting provincial approval to merge as one.

The proposal would see Kenora-Patricia Child and Family Services and Family and Children Services Rainy River become one agency in April 2011.

Rainy River board chair Bob McGreevy feels the move would be serve the region.

McGreevy says the province is supportive of the concept in principal, but has asked for more information before giving its blessing to the merger.

Farmer's Market Back

The farmer's market its making its annual return to the Kenora Harborfront this morning.

There will be 65 vendors under the big tent each Wednesday during the summer.

Buck Matiowski is the city's special events co-ordinator and says they have been working
to get more artisan's involved in the market.

The farmer's market opens at 9:30 this morning and will run until about 2:30 this
afternoon.

It will run on the Harborfront until the middle of October.

Chiefs of Ontario meet near Fort Frances

The top aboriginal leaders in Ontario have gathered on the Couchiching First Nation near Fort Frances

for their annual meeting.

Grand Chief of Treaty #3, Diane Kelly says she's looking forward to hearing the discussion around
revenue sharing.

The three day Chiefs of Ontario Conference will wrap up tomorrow.

Falcon Lake Accident

Five people were taken to hospital following a head-on collision on Highway #1 near Falcon Lake.


The accident took place yesterday afternoon shortly after 3:00 on the two-lane portion of
the roadway.
The RCMP say a westbound vehicle crossed the center line and crashed into an eastbound car.

Police say three people were in the westbound Chevy Malibu and two people were a Pontiac G-6.

They were taken to Lake of the Woods District Hospital and St. Anne Hospital in Manitoba for
treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

The Trans-Canada at Falcon Lake was closed for about two hours as a result of the collision.

OPP charge impaired boater

The OPP says a 19 year old Kenora man has been charged with impaired driving
after the boat he was driving overturned on Lake of the Woods.

Police were called out around 2:00 Sunday morning, after getting a report that
a boat had flipped over on the south side of Treaty Island.

When emergency service personnel arrived on the scene, they discovered five people
had been in the boat, but all made it to shore.

The OPP say further investigation showed the driver of the boat had been drinking
and also faces a number of charges under the Canada Shipping Act.

He's due to appear in Kenora Court at the end of July to answer the charges.

Public School Board Enrolment expected to decline

Enrolment is expected to decline in the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board once again this fall.

The board is projecting almost 300 fewer students for the 2010/2011 school year.
Superintendant of Business, Dean Carrie says that will have an impact on their
bottom line next year.

The school board expects enrolment will be just over five thousand students in
September, down from the current level of 53 hundred.

No Monopoly space for Kenora

Do not pass go and do not collect 200 dollars.

The City of Kenora has failed in its bid to earn a place on the newest
Canadian Edition of Monopoly.

Hasbro announced the 22 communities that will get a spot on the  newly designed board.

In the wild card race, Kenora was beaten out by        Beauceville, Quebec.

The only community from northern Ontario on the board is North Bay.

Keewatin-Patricia School Board expects to run a deficit

For the first time ever, the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board is planning to

run a deficit to operate its schools across the region this year.

Trustees approved the 2010/2011 budget at a special meeting last night and
it calls for a deficit of about 1.5 million dollars.

Superintendant of Finance Dean Carrie says there are a number of reasons why they
will be operating in the red this year, but the biggest cause is special education programs.

Carrie says they will be able to cover off their deficit through money they have
in reserve funds.

He adds that the Ministry of Education has approved their deficit spending estimates
for the next school year.