FORT FRANCES—The Fort Frances Public Library “Building for the Future” campaign got a major shot-in-the-arm Tuesday with a $175,000 donation from Shaw Communications. The donation to the Fort Frances Public Library and Technology Centre boosts the campaign’s fundraising total to $706,000—a big step closer to its goal of $750,000. Equally important, it put new wind in the sails of a project ...

With summer well underway but without the typical dry heat to show for it, Bill Laidlaw, consulting meteorologist and owner of Signal Weather Services, said while this is a cooler year compared to others, this is not a first nor will it be the last. The most recent set of normals have not been compiled yet but using the 1971-2000 set, it showed April was 2.1 degrees below normal, May was 4.8 ...

“Faber Drive” is coming back by popular demand—and bringing a rock show sure to satisfy returning fans and blow the socks off newcomers. Adam Armit and his company, WildFire, opted to bring the popular rock band back to Fort Frances on Aug. 7 after Faber Drive’s stellar first show at the Townshend Theatre back in March. In fact, their agency contacted him with news of the possibility of a ...

FORT FRANCES—The Town of Fort Frances will be holding a meeting this fall to gauge interest from potential property developers and unit buyers to see if building another condominium here is a feasible venture down the road. Local economic development officer Geoff Gillon said the meeting is a follow-up from last year, when the town requested expressions of interest in developing the Front ...

FORT FRANCES—A 75-hectare area of Goose Island officially has been designated as a provincial park by the Ontario government. “It’s fabulous. It’s been a long-time coming,” said James Duncan, associate regional vice-president for the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Ontario region. “This was always the intent of acquiring the island, to see it added to Ontario’s parks and protected areas,” ...

FORT FRANCES—Whether its escorting police officers on marine patrol or promoting the “Lock It or Lose It” campaign, the local detachment of the OPP has four students lending it extra hands this summer. Cody Van Drunen, Dayton Brown, Mitch Cain, and Jenna Nowak have been working with the OPP under the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services’ “Summer Experience Program” since the ...

The talent really hit the stage last night at the annual “Kiddie Quest” and “Quest for the Best” shows under the big tent at the Sorting Gap Marina. Dubbed by many as the best “Quest” in a long time, the judges really had their work cut out for them. Although the tent was not as packed as in previous years, the energy on the stage—and in the audience—definitely was not in short supply. The ...

More than 300 people showed up at the Memorial Sports Centre here yesterday to see one of their own who has gone on to reach the highest hockey stage. Duncan Keith, a defenceman with the Chicago Blackhawks who got his start while playing in the Fort Frances Minor Hockey Association, was presented with two murals during a ceremony marking “Duncan Keith Day.” One was inscribed with “Dreams do ...

The Fort Frances Community Clinic staff have ratified a contract that will help narrow the wage gap among local health care workers, a union spokesman said. “The biggest change we wanted to make was to move forward with equalizing wage differences between health care workers in the community, and we believe this is the first step,” said C.U.P.E. national representative Danny Scheibli. The ...

There currently are seven active fires in the West Fire Region. Five of those are being managed to realize ecological benefits associated with forest fires as per Ontario’s Forest Fire Management Strategy. These blazes are located in the fire districts of Fort Frances (in Quetico Provincial Park), Kenora, Nipigon, Red Lake, and Sioux Lookout. The two other blazes—Sioux Lookout Fire #18 and ...

While changes are in the works to local Shaw TV coverage now that programming will be run out of Dryden and Kenora, cable subscribers here can rest assured coverage of Monday evening town council meetings will continue. Town administration and some council members met with company representatives here Friday afternoon to discuss the continued need for community television programming for Fort ...

AbitibiBowater employees here were rewarded for their excellent on-the-job safety record last week—and they went home with a little extra spending power in their pockets. The 700 employees each were given a $40 Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce gift certificate, which is expected to give local businesses a boost, Chamber manager Dawn Booth said. “When I got the call to issue the cheques, I ...

Two new fires occurred in the West Fire Region over what otherwise was a quiet weekend. Fort Frances Fire #10 was located near Quetico Park and reported at 0.1 hectares in size. The blaze was extinguished Saturday by a FireRanger crew from the Fort Frances fire management headquarters. Meanwhile, Nipigon Fire #12 was reported in the far north of Nipigon District yesterday afternoon. The ...

Being nominated by one’s peers, and receiving an award for one’s accomplishments in life, is a tremendous honour. Such is the case for Robert Animikii Horton (Bebaamoyaash), a 26-year-old Sociology master’s student at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and member of Rainy River First Nations (Manitou Rapids). Horton is one of 12 individuals from across Canada who has received the 2008 ...

Members of the Fort Frances Fire Department and volunteer fire brigade will be conducting another “boot drive” in conjunction with the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship’s annual parade of boats, which takes place next Wednesday (July 23). And once again the money raised will go to fight muscular dystrophy. The parade of boats, scheduled to get underway at 5 p.m., will run from the old ...

With the cost of gas causing many Canadians to avoid larger vehicles in favour of smaller, fuel-efficient ones, Fort Frances seems to be bucking the trend when it comes to truck sales. “We have not seen a big difference,” said Guy Klem of West End Motors here. “Our new truck sales, full-sized trucks, have still been excellent. It really hasn’t affected us. “We’ve been fortunate,” he added. ...

Unofficial results will be in tomorrow on whether or not community college support staff will endorse a strike mandate. If members vote in favour of a strike, their bargaining unit will be authorized to call one if they don’t reach an agreement with their college employers. While the vote involves college support staff from across Ontario, four support staff are a part of the bargaining team ...

Jobs are openings up at AbitibiBowater here. “We’ve hired probably, since late last year until the end of this summer, 25 people,” noted mill general manager John Harrison, which has included a few salaried jobs. “We’re at that point where there’s a significant number of mill people retiring so we’re trying to replace them,” he added. Abitibi also is looking to hire a half-dozen spare ...

Local Ministry of Natural Resources FireRangers have returned home after fighting forest fires in Western Canada. “Basically when we got there, it was hot and dry and there was a large system moving in that was producing a lot of lightning and very little rain,” noted Josh Leatherdale, crew boss for one of the crews dispatched to Alberta back on July 2. “They were expecting big things to ...

Former Fort Frances resident Peter Andrusco will receive recognition for his extensive work and achievements with the Teachers’ Federation of Ontario. Andrusco, the son of Nick and Mary of Fort Frances, retired June 30 after more than 30 years of membership with the OTF. He will be presented with the highest Ontario Teachers’ Federation recognition, an honourary life membership, and the first ...