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.

Concern Raised About Agent Orange Panel

Agent Orange is under the spot light again.

Timmins MPP Gillies Bisson questioned the McGuinty government about the appointment of Dr. Leonard Ritter.

Ritter is going to investigate the use of Agent Orange in Northern Ontario.

Bisson expressed his concerns in the Legislature.

The panel will look into the use of the toxic herbicide between the 60s and 80s.

Round Robin Wraps up at National Wheelchair Curling Championships

Wayne Fiecek continues to alternate wins and losses at the National Wheelchair curling championships in Edmonton.

Yesterday, Team Northern Ontario started the day with a 5-2 victory over the host team from the Jasper Center Curling Club.

The Fiecek rink then followed that up with a narrow 8-7 loss to the unbeaten Alberta squad.

With two draws left, Team Northern Ontario has a 3-4 record and needs to win both games today to have any chance at the play-offs.

OFSAA Hockey update

Beaver Brae's girls hockey team has moved into the consolation semi-finals at the All-Ontario A/AA championships in Stratford.

The Broncos blanked Lester B. Pearson High School from Hamilton yesterday 3-0 in the consolation quarter-finals.

Jody Melillo, Jess Ricklefs, and Karly Kantola each scored for Beaver Brae.

The Bronco's next game is at 9:15 this morning.

Meanwhile, the Thomas Aquinas boys hockey team suffered a costly loss yesterday at the OFSAA A/AA championships in Timmins.

The Saints were edged 8-7 by Glendale Secondary School From Tillsonburg, dropping T.A.'s record to 1-2 with just one round robin game left to play.

Thomas Aquinas will take on Algoma District Secondary School at 9:00 this morning.

Former mayor faces impaired driving charges

The former mayor of Kenora will appear in court in May on impaired driving charges.

The OPP say they pulled over a vehicle in downtown early this morning because it was being operated in what they called a suspicious manner.

The driver of the vehicle was given a road-side breath test and failed.

74 year old Leonard Compton was arrested and charged with operating a motor vehicle with having over 80 milligrams of alcohol in his blood.

He's due to appear in court on May 2nd.

OPP says girl died of Hypothermia in Sioux Lookout

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.

A post-mortem exam had been conducted earlier this week in Toronto.

Matthews 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.

Small Communities interested in using Kenora's Landfill

The Kenora Municipal Landfill Site out at Silver Lake seems to be attracting a lot of interest.

A number of communities in the region have contacted the city about using the landfill to deal with their own garbage issues.

Mike Mostow is the city's solid waste manager and says the interest is a mixed blessing.

Mostow admits the life span of the landfill is going to be a lot longer than anticipated because local residents are recycling more than they used to.

The life span of the landfill was originally estimated at 35 years.