Missing Walker Found Safe

A safe ending to a search for a missing person in Koochiching County last week.

Deputies with the County's Sheriff's Office were called out last Thursday to look for a 29-year-old man along the Arrowhead Snowmobile Trail.

Police says the man was walking the trail between International Falls and Lake Kabetogama when he lost his direction.

Deputies were able locate him and bring him safely back to his vehicle near Lake Kabetogama.

Public Helps Police Nab Drunk Driver

A call to OPP helped them take a drunk driver off the road on the weekend.

OPP says acting on a public complaint, they were able to track down a vehicle in Fort Frances and charge the driver, a 36-year-old Fort Frances man.

He'll now answer to the charges in court next month.

Fort Frances Teacher Seeks OSSTF Presidency

A Fort Frances High School teacher is looking to become the new head of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation.

Paul Elliott has been on the OSSTF executive since 2005, serving as a vice-president for the last four years.

He's been on a leave of absence from his teaching job since.


Elliott feels he's got the skills to shape new relations with the province.


Elections will be held at Federation's convention in March.

Current president Ken Coran has indicated his intentions to step down.

Assessment Appeal Reaches Pre-Hearing

Resolute Forest Product's appeal of its assessment in Fort Frances has reached the pre-hearing stage.

A face-to-face meeting between the Ontario Assessment Review Board and parties involved has been scheduled for February 15 in Toronto.

The town will be represented by a Toronto consultant firm.

Resolute claims the assessment of its mill properties is too high.

It's possible that a date for a full-hearing could result out of the pre-hearing.

Foresty Officials See Improvements In Industry

The years of hard times in the forestry sector may be coming to an end.

President and CEO of the Ontario Forest Industries Association, Jamie Lim, says with the building of a new sawmill in Atikokan and the re-opening of mills in Kenora and Sioux Lookout, the industry is ready for a comeback.

Lim says is a rise in the U-S housing market and a rise in the composite price index and helping with the turn around..

Institute Names New Board

Ten people from across northern Ontario have been selected to the inaugural board of directors of the Northern Policy Institute.

None are from the Rainy River district.

They do include George Macey of Marathon and Florence Bailey of Sioux Lookout.

The board will hold its first meeting February 20th in Sault Ste. Marie.

Highway Work Begins

Blasting and grading work to extend the four-laning of Highway 53 near Cook begins today.

As a result, the Minnesota Department of Transportation says the Highway could be closed for short periods times.

Speeds will also be reduced with flaggers controlling traffic as well.

"Gentle Bear Man Of Emo" Airs Tomorrow

A full-length documentary about a wildlife sanctuary near Emo will see its public release tomorrow.

"The Gentle Bear Man of Emo" was produced a couple of years ago by a film crew out of Colorado.

Mike Scheibler of the Isaiah Wildlife sanctuary expects it will help draw more interest to his property.

The film will be available on services such as i-Tunes and Netflix.

Bus Cancellations For Monday February 4

Some bus cancellations to pass on this morning.

All Iron Range routes in Atikokan are not operating.

Stanjikoming First Nations bus and the Seine River High School high school bus - both not running either.

Seine River First Nation elementary bus to Mine Centre is delayed two hours

Dimit Bus Lines DB109 driving by Brenda Hunsperger is running one hour behind.

New Sawmill For Atikokan

A new sawmill for Atikokan.

Resolute Forest Products plans to spend $50-million dollars on the new random-length mill, scheduled to begin production early next year.

President Richard Garneau says along with the creation of 90 new jobs, he sees it helping with it's pulp and paper operations in Thunder Bay and its repositioning of the mill in Fort Frances.


The company hopes to begin construction later this spring, but is still investigating potential sites.

Wood for the mill will come from Resolute's existing forest management units, including the Crossroute Forest which has been a source of fibre to the Fort Frances mill.

Roger Barber, general manager of wood products, says only the premium logs from those areas will be taken for the Atikokan plant with the chips from the sawmill directed to operations in Thunder Bay and Fort Frances.

The announcement is welcome news to the mayor of Atikokan.

Dennis Brown says its great news for the entire region, noting his town is back in the mill business

The former Buchanan owned mill at nearby Sapawe and Proboard closed a few years ago.

Atikokan Renewable Fuels, which is producing wood pellets for Ontario Power Generation's power plant in Atikokan,  is now operating out of the former Proboard site.

School Board Looks To Getting More Clubs Operational

The use of volunteers to oversee high school sports teams could be extended to other Rainy River district school clubs.

Some teams got back to action last week after the Rainy River District School Board established a process that permits volunteers to run teams without teachers.

Education Director Heather Campbell says they are looking at how to help other school clubs.

Teachers aren't getting involved in extra-curricular activities in protest over the government's decision to impose new contacts on them.

ORNGE Hiring

The province's air Air Ambulance service is adding staff to its Thunder Bay Base.

Ornge President, Dr. Andrew McCallum says a third team of paramedics will be added to performing transports on the helicopter.

McCallum says the number of people being hired will be 10.

Worst Of Flu Season At End

Health officials say the worst of the flu season is likely over in Minnesota.

The number of flu-related hospitalizations and outbreaks has dropped for the third week in a row.

Minnesota has seen 112 deaths during this flu season, and over 23-hundred hospitalizations.

Highway Expansion Begins Next Week

If you heading south to Duluth next week, you might encounter some traffic delays in the area of Cook.

Blasting and grading work to extend the four-laning of Highway 53 will begin Monday.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation says the Highway could be closed for short periods times.

Speeds will also be reduced with flaggers controlling traffic as well.

Bus Cancellations For Friday February 1

 Cold weather is having some impact on school buses today.

Just one route has been cancelled so far.

Route MM230 driving by Shelly MacDonald is not running today.

Announcement For Atikokan Today

Today could be a big day for the community of Atikokan.

Resolute Forest Products President Richard Garneau will be in Thunder Bay and Atikokan to make a major announcement.

The nature of the announcement has not been disclosed, but Mayor Dennis Brown says it means jobs and an industry for his town.

There is speculation in the community that Resolute plans to construct a new sawmill on the site of the former Buchanan owned mill at nearby Sapawe.

New Doctor Expected This Summer

There some good news on the horizon in the efforts to attract new physicians to the Rainy River District.

Physician recruiter Todd Hamilton says he's made dozens of contacts with first-year medical students and current physicians since coming on board last fall.

Hamilton says at least one doctor could be coming to the area later this summer.

Hamilton says there's also interest being expressed by a U.S. doctor with connects to the area.

DSSAB Receives New Money

The Rainy River District Social Services Administrative Board has received some extra funds for children services.

CAO Dan McCormick says it amounts to about $1.4 million dollars.




McCormick says its the result of a restructuring and redistribution of funds to the DSSAB's by the provincial government.

McCormick says they're now working on criteria how the new funds will be dispersed

Local Broadcaster Honoured

The news director of 93.1 The Border is being recognized with a Diamond Jubilee medal.

Randy Thoms will be among residents in the Rainy River district to receive medals at a ceremony in Fort Frances next month.

The event is being hosted by Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP John Rafferty.

Thoms, who's also worked in Kenora, Thunder Bay and New Brunswick, celebrates 30 years in the radio and television broadcast industry this year.

Wynne Talks With Teachers

Incoming premier Kathleen Wynne says she'll meet again with the heads of Ontario's teachers' unions who are still angry over having had contracts imposed on them.

Wynne says she had a good meeting Tuesday night with the heads of the public elementary and secondary teachers' unions as well as their counterparts from the Catholic and French systems who actually signed contracts.

Wynne says a return of extracurricular activities was part of the conversation, but there's no agreement yet to get after-class clubs and sports running again.