Mayor's Look Back

Mayor Roy Avis says 2009 was a challenging one for the town of Fort Frances.

In a year-end interview with B-93, Avis says the recession and AbitibiBowater's decision to seek bankruptcy protection had the biggest impacts on the community.

"With those happening, it reflected quite a bleak picture within the community for quite some time," says Avis, "but we have banded together and we came up with a very good year end and that reflects on the citizens of this community wanted to get together and work as a whole."

Avis says the town was fortunate to see its major employer continue to operate while others around it shutdown or took lengthy downtime.

Avis also points to a busy construction season causing some challenges for area motorists in 2009, but was pleased to see the end of work at the Portage Avenue underpass which took three years to complete.