Festival Ends

Robert Moore School students were at the top of the list of winners on the final day of the Rainy River Festival of the Performing Arts on Friday.

The school earned first place marked in four separate English Drama classes.

J.W. Walker and St. Francis Schools were winners in two categories.

Callahan Wiedenhoeft was the top individual winner with two first place honours.

The annual highlights concert will be held this Sunday at Townshend Theatre.

Here is a list of all winners from Friday


FESTIVAL RESULTS, ENGLISH DRAMA DIVISION, Friday, April 23, 2010

CLASS A900
First – St. Francis NSL, Grade 6 – Corine Bannon
CLASS A1200-A
First – Robert Moore School, Grade 4 – Mrs. Donald
CLASS A1200-B
First – Robert Moore School, Grade 5 – Mrs. Donald
CLASS A700-C
Huffman School, Kindergarten/Grade 1 – Karen Peltomaki (Non-Competitive)
CLASS A703-A
First – J. W. Walker School, Grades 2 and 3 – J. Johanson
CLASS A703-B
First – Robert Moore School, Grade 3 – Mrs. Norris
CLASS A704-B
First – Robert Moore School, Grade 4 – Mrs. Beckett
CLASS A704-C
First – J. W. Walker School, Grade 4 – J. Johanson
CLASS A705-B
First – St. Francis School, Grades 4 and 5 – Solange Busch
CLASS A101-D
Jenaya DeBenetti (Non-Competitive)
CLASS A103-B
First – Callahan Wiedenhoeft
CLASS A103-F
First – Mira Donaldson
CLASS A103-D
First – Callahan Wiedenhoeft
CLASS A104-D
First – Siobhan Mackintosh
Second – Olivia DeBenedet
CLASS A105-A
First – Jade Green
CLASS A105-D
First – Mackenzie Wright
Second – Joleigh Hayes
CLASS A107-A
First – Andrew Eldridge
CLASS A107-E
First – Shawn Brady
CLASS A201
First – Jade Green
CLASS A202
First – Danté Tookenay

Fort Frances Council Tonight

Fort Frances councillors will get an update today on Union Gas' plans to upgrade its infrastructure in the town.

The gas company is spending $10-million to replace old lines and meters and began its two-year project in the west end last year.

Also at tonight's regular meeting of council, a decision on whether to proceed with a planned increase in councillors salaries.

Mayor Roy Avis had asked that the increase, approved earlier this year, get a re-think in light of Premier Dalton McGuinty's comments that municipalities consider holding the line on employee wages.

The public portion of tonight's meeting gets underway at about 6:20 p.m.

More Human-Caused Fires Reported

A ban on burning in northwestern Ontario did little to prevent the outbreak of more human caused fires over the weekend.

The Ministry of Natural Resources reports 21 new fires in the west fire region, including three in the Rainy River District.

Two of those fires in this region were identified as being human-caused.

The MNR says dry conditions and high to extreme fire hazards with minimal rain in the forecast will keep a restricted fire zone in place for a while.

Busy Weekend for Local Firefighters

Members of the Fort Frances Fire and Rescue were busy dealing with a number of grass fires of their own.

Among them, a fire that broke out just around midnight last night near the Fort Frances Curling Club and took fire fighters nearly two hours to battle.

Saturday afternoon, fire fighters were called to AbitibiBowater to deal with a fire on a locomotive.

The fire was contained to the engine compartment and no other rail cars were damaged.

The extent of damage to the locomotive was not immediately known.

Organ Donations

There's a strong willingness by northerners to sign organ-donor registrations.

An analysis by the Toronto Star says about 30 per cent of Fort Frances residents registered consent for organ and tissue donation.

In communities west of the town, 17 per cent of residents have signed the donor registry, while it's 37 per cent in Kenora and 29 per cent in Dryden.

The Trillium Gift of Life Network says 90 per cent of Ontarians say they support organ donation -- yet only 17 per cent have registered their intent to donate.

Literacy Coach Time Expanded

The Northwest Catholic District School Board is using several thousands of dollars from its reserve fund to support the increase of literacy-coach time at its area schools.

Board chair Anne-Marie Fitzgerald says increasing the times of its literacy coaches can only lead to improvements in the classroom.

"There goal is to promote student learning and raise achievement in the area of literacy," says Fitzgerald. "We have found the role of the literacy coaches in our schools to have a profoundly positive effective on improving literacy targets board wide."

The $170-thousand will be help cover salary and benefits needed to increase the hours of the literacy coaches.

E-Learning Helping Northern Ontario

The creation of a distance education program for residents in southern Ontario is expanding learning opportunities for northern Ontario citizens.

Raeann Watson, coordinator for Contact North's site in Fort Frances, says they're working with E-learning to bring access to post-secondary institutions and programs never available in the past.

"The best example is Lambton College, working with Sheridan College, working with Confederation College, is putting on the pharmacy tech training right now," says Watson. "Up until Confederation agreed to work with Lambton and Sheridan to put it on, the techs that needed to get that upgrading were scheduled to go to southern Ontario."

Watson says with E-Learning, students can take programs that fit their own schedule.