New Education Director Named

(Left: Board Chair, Dan Belluz with Heather Campbell, Director of Education - courtesy Rainy River District School Board)

The Rainy River District School Board has promoted from within for its new director of education.

Heather Campbell takes over from Jack McMaster who left last month for a position with the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board.

"I've first of all privileged and honoured and really excited to work with the board of trustees and staff of the Rainy River District School Board to continue enhancing student success for our students," says Campbell.

Campbell has been an educator for the past fourteen years, the last four as the board's Superintendent of Education.

Vote By Mail Accepted

Public school supporters living in the Rainy River District's unorganized areas will vote by-mail this fall in the election of school board trustees.

Trustees with the Rainy River District Board gave approval to mail-in balloting at their meeting last night.

The board had contracted services to area municipalities in the past for polling stations, but with many communities going to mail-in ballots themselves, polling stations were as not seen an option this year.

Mercury Poisoning Study

A protest is expected outside Queen's Park today by activists demanding more be done to deal with mercury poisoning at a FirstNations reserve in northwestern Ontario.

A study released yesterday suggests the health effects of mercury poisoning at Grassy Narrows are worse now than in the 1970's.

Activists are calling for permanent mercury monitoring through an environmental centre in the community and tougher federal mercury guidelines.

The study says mercury dumped into the Wabigoon River between 1962 and 1970 continued harming area residents as recently as 2004.

Raw Sewage into River

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is looking into an incident in which raw sewage was pumped into the Rainy River.

Acting on a recent complaint, a DNR conservation officer found a septic tank being pumped into a ravine running into the river near Baudette.

The property owner claimed his drain field had not worked for some time and that bringing it up to code would cost to much.

The DNR's Soil and Water Bureau is investigating.

Bids for Forests Received

The forest allocation competition for eleven million cubic metres of fibre in Ontario has come to a close.

Forestry Minister Michael Gravelle says a number of companies have placed bids, some on the value-added side of the industry.

"A lot of the new entrants did not have access to a wood supply," says Gravelle, "so the goal is to try to find some way of evening the playing field."

Gravelle expects to announced recommendation within six months.

Library Grant

The town of Atikokan has received an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant for upgrades to its library.

The more than $20-thousand will be used to purchase and install new energy efficient doors and windows in the children's area.

March Weather Recap

March 2010 is going down in history as the least snowiest ever in the Fort Frances area.

For the first time ever, no snow was recorded at area weather stations.

Geoff Coulson of Environment Canada says combined with warmer than usual temperatures, snow levels diminished by the middle of the month.

The average temperature for the month came in at 1.1 C., breaking a 10-year-old record high by more than a full degree.