More Festival Acts Named

More names have been announced for the upcoming Harmony of Nations Music festival in Fort Frances this July.

They include award-winning Shy-Anne Hovorka from Thunder Bay and rising young country music star and Metis Fiddler Sierra Noble out of Winnipeg.

The folk-rock band Cornshed from Vancouver featuring three home-grown musicians, Andrew Mueller, Marc Lovisa and Andrew Marusyk, will also play.

Fort Frances' Larissa Desrosiers, song-writer Nick Sherman from Sioux Lookout and Thunder Bay's Jean-Paul De Roover are also on the bill.

They'll join previously announced Buffy Ste. Marie and the Woodpicks out of Thief River, Minnesota.

A number of other local performers will also be on stage with an announcement coming in the near future.

The headline for the first night of the event is also to be announced.

Tourist Centre To Reopen

Ontario's former tourist information centre in Fort Frances will be reopening.

Mayor Roy Avis says they've reached an agreement with the province for the town to take over the shuttered building on a one-year lease.

Since the province's closure of the facility two years ago, the town has had students under a tent at the border hand out information.

Avis says this year they will work from inside the centre.

Other organizations had expressed interest in setting up their operations inside, but Avis says the  lease does not permit that for now.

Fort Frances Supports Postal Workers

Postal Workers in Fort Frances are fighting to keep door-to-door mail delivery in the community.

Canada Post plans to replace it with community mailboxes.

Canadian Union of Postal Workers local president Sandra Lange says they'd rather get rid of the ones already in place.

Lange says four positions will be cut once the mailboxes are implemented.

Fort Frances town council is adding its voice in support of the postal workers by passing a resolution in support of door-to-door mail delivery.

It's now one of more than 50 communities across the country who've come out in support of the service staying put.

Winter Problems Linger In Fort Frances

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Fort Frances is not out of the woods just yet with frozen water pipes and water main breaks.

 

Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown says there's still more than a dozen homeowners whose lines are still frozen and requests to trickle the water will continue with deep frost still in the ground.

 

Brown says a dig to fix a broken water pipe near LaVerendrye Hospital yesterday revealed three feet of frost.

 

Leaders Tuesday

On the campaign front today, Premier Kathleen Wynne is in Toronto to speak at the Bloomberg Economic Summit before visiting Mississauga.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak is the guest of the Canada 2020 Speaker Series in Ottawa

NDP leader Andrea Horwath campaigns in Toronto.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner is revealing his party's platform.

Leaders Focus On Hydro Rates

Hydro rates the focus of attention for the leaders yesterday.

 

NDP leader Andrea Horwath in Thunder Bay to announce that an NDP government would eliminate the HST from hydro bills.

 

The PC's Tim Hudak is promising to scrap the subsidizes on wind and solar projects and restructure Ontario hydro organizations to help stabilize energy rates.

 

Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne pledging reduced rates for lower income earners and industrial hydro users.

 

 

Event Helps Clean Medicine Cabinets

Many medicine cabinets across the Rainy River district are a little cleaner today.

A district wide collection by the OPP and the Rainy River District Substance Abuse Prevention Team on the weekend brought in almost 5-and-a-half kilograms of old and unused medication.

They're now being packaged and sent to Orillia for safe disposal.

Fool's Gold Premieres On TV Tonight

A television program about a mining crew's search for gold in the Fort Frances area makes its debut tonight.

Fool's Gold features workers with Shotgun Exploration at the former Straw Lake Gold Mine.

Jason Whitehead, AKA Roj, says how they deal with their inexperience and the site's remoteness shines through.

The show airs on Discovery Canada beginning at 7 PM Central time.

Officer Charged With Impaired

A member of the OPP has been charged with driving while impaired.

Caitlyn Van Straalan was charged Sunday after failing a breath test during a RIDE check in the Red Lake area.

She was not on duty at the time.

The six-year veteran of the force has been assigned to desk duties pending a court appearance in June.

Marathon Town Councillor Killed

The town of Marathon is mourning the death a town councillor.

Dustin Pascoe was killed Saturday night on Highway 527 after his pick-up truck struck a rock-up and flipped over.

OPP says he pronounced dead at the scene.

The 24-year old, was also a volunteer firefighter in Marathon, was travelling to work at the Lac Des Iles Mine.

Horwath Visits Northwestern Ontario

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A visit from one of the party leaders to northwestern Ontario in the provincial election campaign.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath was in Thunder Bay where she helped open a campaign office for Thunder Bay-Superior North candidate Andrew Foulds.

Horwath says northerners are prepared for change.

A Message Of Hope

A message about bullying and mental illness from a victim.

Molly Burke was a guest speaker at Fort Frances High School's mini-We Day as part of its Grade 8 day Friday.

Burke, who is blind and was bullied at her school, says it's important she tell her story to other young people.

Burke is encouraged that people are now speaking out against bullying, but as much focus must be made to mental illness among youth.

Teens Plan Trip To Central America

Two Grade 11 students at Fort Frances High School are preparing for a humanitarian trip to Nicaragua.

Julia Quast and Kate Parsons will, among other things, help build a school.

Quast says it was their visit to We-Day that encouraged them to get involved.

The teens are in the process of raising the money needed for the 10-day trip in August.

You can help them by making to donate through the website GoFundMe.com.

Jail or Bail Raises $4,500

A number of residents, including the mayor of Fort Frances, are free on bail today after helping the Voyageur Lion's Club with its Jail or Bail event.

 

Around $4,500 was raised.

 

Mayor Roy Avis, among those put behind bars, brought in $1,200 for the cause.

 

93.1 The Border's own Johnathan Pryce was also successful in collecting the bail he required to get out of jail.

 

The money will be shared between Special Olympian David Ducasse who's heading to a national event and a program that trains dogs for those with autism.

Expect A Cool Summer

A bad news-good news weather forecast for our summer.

Accuweather predicts cooler than normal conditions across northwestern Ontario.

Meteorologist Brett Anderson says the good news is less severe weather.

Anderson suggests the latter part of August is when we may get to see real hot temperatures.

Green Party Candidate Ready

The Green party candidate in Kenora-Rainy River is ready to launch an aggressive campaign.

 

Tim McKillop of Pickle Lake says he wants to bring some stability back to the Ontario Legislature.

 

McKillop is a school teacher who's been involved with the Green Party for many years.

Falls City Police Busy

International Falls Police are busy.

Chief Mike Musich says officers responded to more than 500 calls for service in April with 93 of the cases of a more serious nature.

Musich says if the trend continues he will be asking for more officers.

Musich some of the more serious incidents included assaults, domestics and a kidnapping/confinement incident

International Falls Seeks Volunteers

International Falls is seeking someone to help oversee it's City Beach.

Committee member Linda Torseth says they have people for June, but are still looking for volunteers for the rest of the summer.

Individuals would do light duties such as open and close the gate to the beach, collect funds from campers and do minor clean-up.

Interested people are asked to contact the city.

Feds Criticized For Lack Of Notice With Nat'l Day Of Honour

The Royal Canadian Legion is perplexed about why the federal government gave it little time to prepare commemoration ceremonies for last Friday's National Day of Honour.

The day was held to mark the end of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan.

Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP John Rafferty says several branches didn't have time to put something together.

No ceremonies were announced by another of four legions in the Rainy River district.

Sex Offenders Living In District

Some stark reality about where registered sex offenders live in Ontario.

The Ministry of Corrections has handed Global News that information after being ordered to do so by the Supreme Court.

Global has since created maps on its website showing the areas, by postal code only, where sex offenders registered in 2008.

In the Rainy River district, the data indicates there were 14 living within the area code POW, 20 in P9A, and 95 within POT, which also includes areas around the Thunder Bay and Upsala areas.

Unlike Minnesota, Ontario law enforcement is not required to inform the public when a sex offender moves into their community.