Saints Split in Red Lake

Thomas Aquinas boys volleyball teams remain unbeaten in NorWOSSA league

play.

The Saints were in Red Lake yesterday and both the senior and junior boys
volleyball teams swept the Rams three games to none.

It was a different story on the basketball court as Red Lake dominated

T.A.

The Saints junior girls dropped a 34-21 decision, while the Thomas Aquinas

senior girls were upended 51-24.

This weekend, the Thomas Aquinas and Beaver Brae senior Boys volleyball

teams are in Dryden for the Eagles annual Invitational Tournament.

Healthy Workplaces Month

October is Healthy Workplace Month and the Northwestern Health Unit is encouraging area workplaces to implement job satisfaction initiatives.

Officials say when employees are supported at work to make healthy choices, research shows that they work more efficiently.

Workplace Health Promoter Jessica Brown says the Health Unit offers a number of services.

Brown notes that 52-percent of the Canadian workforce has little access to workplace health services.

Broncos Footballers Play in Steinbach

After a tough three game stretch, Beaver Brae's Football team gets a bit of a break in the schedule today.

The 3-2 Broncos hit the road to take on the winless Steinbach Sabres in Winnipeg High School Football League action.

The expansion team has an 0-5 record after losing 20-15 to Dryden last week.

It was the Eagles first victory of the season.

Game time is 3:00 this afternoon in Steinbach.

New Agreement for Kenora Forest SFL

Its being called an historic agreement.

The Kenora Forest is now part of a co-operative forest licence involving private business and several area first nations.

Eric Fisher, chief of the Wabaseemung First Nation, is the president of the Mitigoog Limited Partnership, and says it gives aboriginal communities a 50 percent stake in forest activities in the Kenora Forest.

Weyerhaeuser, which had the Sustainable Forest Licence for the Kenora Forest is also a member of the Mitigoog partnership.

Other partners include the Dalles, Whitefish Bay, Kenora Forest Products, Wincrief, and the Kenora Independant Loggers.

Police urge motorists to watch out for wildlife

Police are warning motorists in northern Ontario that more

wildlife are now on the roads.

They say there are 14-thousand reported collision involving

animals in Ontario every year, that's one every 37 minutes.

October, November and December are one of the peak times for

wildlife collisions since it is the mating and migration seasons.

Lac Des Iles Mine Re-Opens in NWO

Two-hundred people can go back to work now that North American Palladium`s Lac des Iles mine has reopened northwest of Thunder Bay.

North American Palladium says it's constructing a shaft that will extend below the existing pit into a recently-discovered ore body.

Company president William J. Biggar says that ore body could extend the life of the mine for another 10 years.

Nearly 400 employees were laid off when the mine ceased production two years ago because of falling palladium prices.

Renovations approved for Rideout Community Club

The Rideout Community Club is due for a 60 thousand dollar upgrade.

Kenora City Council approved funding yesterday to fix up the aging

building.

Councillor Chris Van Wallenghem says the city is providing about 31

thousand dollars in materials, while Sierra Construction has volunteered

the labor to fix up the community club.

Van Wallenghem says council was able to approve the spending, even though

they are considered a lame duck council, because the funding had already been

set aside in this year's capital budget.

Daytime break-in interupted

Three people have been arrested after breaking into a home on Park Street  during the day.

The OPP say a neighbor spotted three people trying to get into the house Wednesday afternoon and called police.

It turned out the owner was also in the house at the time of the break-in.

The culprits demanded food from the owner and ended up stealing a quantity of alcohol and food.

Officers located the suspects, two women and one man a short time later.

They have been charged with break, enter and theft.

Mixed EQAO results in local Public Schools

The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board says it has come up with a number of strategies for improving standardized test scores.

The latest round of reading, writing and math from the Education, Quality and Accountability Office show mixed results for grade three, six and nine students in the public school system.

Caryl Hron is the superintendant of education for the board and says one of things they've done to improve reading and writing test results is to put more of an emphasis on literacy.

Hron says they've increased literacy instruction in the class by 20 minutes a day.

Rec. Center Parking lot ready for paving

Not a lot of parking space available at the Kenora Rec. Center this week, but that's about

to change.

Pioneer Construction is in the process of re-paving the parking lot in front of the Thistle Rink.

The work is being done in conjunction with other construction which is being carried out in the

area.

A new storm water system is being installed along Mike Richards Way.

The warm weather this month, has meant, construction is pretty much on schedule.

Public School Trustees Honoraria Frozen

Trustees with the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board won't see any increase in their pay for the next two years.

The honorarium for the elected school board members will be frozen at 59 hundred dollars a year.

Superintendant of Business, Dean Carrie says under the provincial government's restraint legislation, trustee salaries have to be frozen until April 1st, 2012.

After that, the honorarium will go up to almost 63 hundred dollars a year.

The chair will continue to receive another five thousand dollars a year, while the vice-chair

is eligible for an additional 25 hundred dollars.

CHAP is danger of shut down in Kenora

A popular community-based health program is in danger of being shut down due to a lack of funding.

The Cardiovascular Health Awareness Program, or CHAP for short, has been operating in Kenora since 2006 and is one of 16 communities across Ontario providing the service.

Randy Belair is with the Sunset Country Family Health Team, which operates the program and says they have been trying to convince the provincial government to continue funding CHAP.

Belair says unless they get additional funding, they will have to wrap up the program at the end of the month.

Canadian Bass Championships Seeking Help

For the second straight year, the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship is faced with the prospects of coming to an abrupt end.

The board says it needs someone to replace Tom Fry, who's stepping down as chair after three years.

Fry is hoping someone will take over by the time a public meeting on the tournament happens October 21.

The board has been trying to find a replacement for the past year.

Missing Man found near Ontario/Manitoba Border

A Manitoba angler is safe and sound after being lost in the bush near the Ontario border.

The RCMP say a 50 year old Winnipeg man took his canoe out last Friday on Mink Lake in Nopiming Provincial Park.

He walked to a nearby lake to do some fishing, and when he returned, he couldn't locate

his canoe.

He managed to place a call to the RCMP, but they couldn't locate him using GPS tracking.

The angler ended up making a temporary shelter and spent the night in the bush.

The next day, an RCMP helicopter and search team manage to find the missing

man.

He had made a large fire and searchers were able to see the smoke.

The angler is said to be in good condition and is making arrangements to

pick up his canoe.

Beaver Brae Scholarships Announced

Six former students at Beaver Brae Secondary School have received

lucrative scholarships.

The Ministry of Education has announced the winners of the Queen Elizabeth

Aiming for the Top scholarships.

Nicole Campbell, Montana Lomnicki, Erin Van Breda, Kelsey Craven, Ashley McDonald and Jamie Warkentin will receive as much 35 hundred dollars a year for up to four years.

In order to be eligible for the scholarship, the students have to maintain at least
an 80 percent average at the post-secondary level.

Council meets one more time

Member of Kenora City Council will be taking time off the campaign trail this morning for a special meeting.

A number of items are on today's agenda, including the expenditure of 30 thousand dollars

to do repairs to Rideout Community Club.

Council is also expected to pass a resolution to make the Fire Hall on Second Street South

surplus, so the city can get ready to sell it.

The special meeting of council is scheduled to start at 9:00 this morning in the Second Floor

Meeting Room of the Kenora Rec. Center.

Kenora Metis Council Receives Funding

The Kenora Metis Council is getting some help in its attempts to launch a traditional language training program locally.

Kenora M.P. Greg Rickford presented a cheque for 20 thousand dollars yesterday on behalf of the Minister of Official Languages.

The funding will help the Kenora Metis Council work with local school boards and enable them to set up a lending library at their office beside the old

Fire Hall on Park Street.

Local Schools Get new Smart Boards

A number of classrooms in the public school board are getting smarter and more technologically savvy thanks to 11 school board trustees.

Under a new initiative, trustees have asked to have Smart Board's installed in local public schools as part of a legacy project.

Sean Monteith is a superintendant of education with the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board and says smart boards are revolutionizing the education system.

Beaver Brae, Keewatin Public, Evergreen and Valleyview Schools in Kenora have all been beneficiaries of the Smart Board Legacy Project.

Other schools in the region getting new Smart Boards include New Prospect, and Riverview, Ignace, Lilian Berg in Vermillion Bay, Ear Falls, Red Lake, and Sioux Mountain in Sioux Lookout.

Air Ontario Crash in Dryden Re-Visited

The worst air disaster in northwestern Ontario history will be relived tonight on television.

The Discovery Channel will take a look at the Air Ontario Flight 13-63 crash that killed 21 of 65 passengers and 3 of 4 crew members on March 10th, 1989.

The plane crashed into a wooded area about 15-seconds after take-off at the Dryden Airport in snowy and icy conditions.

The incident will be the feature of the Discovery Channel's Mayday program at 9 o'clock central.

Aboriginal Student Voices Report Released

The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board is looking for ways of creating a better learning environment for aboriginal students.

Recently, a the board held a forum called Aboriginal Student Voices to get feedback and generate some ideas on how to improve the learning environment in local schools.

Beaver Brae student Will Landon presented a report with five recommendations to the board last night, it included ideas how to help students who are struggling.

The recommendations also include cultural awareness training for new teachers to the board, an aboriginal sports program, and a fundraising program to help students to go on school trips.