Thursday, January 21, 2010

Local Sports for Thursday January 21

It was another split in games for the Rainy River Voyageurs on the basketball court.

Last night the men's team beat Vermilion 118-88, but the women's lost 62-57


Bantam girls hockey last night saw the BDO Dunwoody Stars defeat Energy Fitness Wild 3-1.

Scoring for the Stars were Shelby Tymkin with a pair and Taylor Hazel.

Shelby Rae had the Wild's lone goal.


In Atom girls play, the Rolling Lake Lightning and the International Falls under-10 girls team skated to a 3-3 draw.

Annalise Hayes had all three goals for the Lightning.

Lexi Edwards, Amber Tillander and Kara Schneider scored for the Falls' team


In Atom girls action from Wednesday night, it was Fort Frances Kaemingh Esso blanking the Emo Penguins 7-0.

Alyssa Alderson and Emma Noga each had hat tricks with Sara Jackson adding the other goal.

Carly McKinnon recorded the shutout.


It's a light high school schedule locally with only the International Falls Broncos girls basketball team in action.

The Broncos will host Eveleth-Gilbert - 7:30 p.m. at Falls High School.

Summer Jobs Money

The federal government is making more money available for businesses in the Rainy River district to help cover the costs of hiring summer students.

Just under $250-thousand will be allocated for the Canada Summer Jobs programs run by Service Canada.

It's an increase of about $31-thousand over last summer.

Employers can apply for the funding beginning February 1st.

Hunting Ban Issued

A Red Lake man has been fined $3,500 and prohibited from hunting in Ontario for two years for illegally hunting deer in the Rainy River District.

The man was charged last November after MNR conservation officers spotting two men walking out of the bush in the Nelles-Patullo Road area, north of Stratton, and get into a truck.

The MNR later found a deer shot in a nearby farmer's field that was dragged to a fence near the road.

The man initially denied shooting the deer, but C.O.'s were able to match the bullet that killed the animal to his riffle.

Arts Funds Available

Arts organizations in northern Minnesota, including those in Koochiching County will have until the end of this month to apply for funding from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council.

Eligible groups can request up to $6,000 per grant application, an increase from the previous amount of $3,500.

The required match for an application has also been decreased from 50 to 20 percent.

Tim Horton's Raises Funds


There's more fundraising taking place in the Rainy River District for the Haitian earthquake relief effort.

Tim Hortons has announced money raised through it's Children's Foundation coin boxes will be donated to UNICEF.

An additional $100-thousand is being donated at the corporate level.

Labour Meets with Cabinet Members

Union leaders with the Ontario Federation of Labour will get an audience today with two key members of the McGuinty Cabinet.

The meeting with Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and Labour Minister Peter Fonseca will focus around jobs and the economy.

OFL President Sid Ryan calls today's meeting a very positive step and is looking for constructive dialogue.

NDP Anti-HST Campaign in Kenora Riding

Area NDP are focusing attention on the federal Conservative held riding of Kenora in a push to kill the provincial harmonized sales tax.

And Thunder Bay-Superior North M-P Bruce Hyer says the riding's M-P Greg Rickford is not being honest with constituents when he says it's not a Federal issue.

"The federal government has bribed the Ontario into this with $4.3 billion dollars of our federal tax dollars," says Hyer, "which they're going to have to borrow on the money markets and increase our federal deficit."

NDP have been holding public meetings in the riding to rally support against the HST.

Construction Activity Increasing in I. Falls


Watch for some activity along the U.S. side of the Rainy River this summer.

A new headquarters for Voyageur's National Park, an amphitheatre and a new U.S. Border Patrol Facility are expected to take shape this summer.

International Falls Mayor Shawn Mason says that's good news for her community.

"It's been a long time since we have seen groundbreakings happening in our community and some progress," says Mason. "I'm very thrilled with the support of a lot of great people we were able to begin our waterfront projects."

Mason reflected on 2009 and the year ahead at Falls city council meeting this past week.

Building Activity in 2009

A lack in the number of new homes in Fort Frances is being reflected in the overall building numbers for 2009.

Just under One-hundred permits were issued last year, most for home improvements.

Chief Building Official Rick Hallam says its continues a trend seen for several years now.

"There's been a very noticeable decrease in the number of new single detached dwellings being constructed in Fort Frances," says Hallam. "If you go back 10 or 11 years, we were doing upwards to 16 to 18 new homes a year. That's dropped off quite substantially. A lot of it now is additions or renovations."

Larger projects such as the new library, the elementary school and Boston Pizza accounted for much last year's total value of about $15-million.