Walking distances to stay the same at Kawartha-Pine Ridge School Board

The Kawartha-Pine Ridge School board has once again defeated a motion to bring walking distances in line with the Catholic board..

There was a lot of debate at last night’s board meeting as trustees considered the 355-thousand-dollar annual extra busing cost..

The public board has a walking distance policy of 1.6 kilometres for Grades 1 to 3, but that would have changed to one kilometre if the motion had passed.

Trustee Angela Lloyd, who voted against the change, said youth obesity and juvenile diabetes have increased and physical activity is a priority at the schools..

Daryl Kramp gets flack over adding Canadian to Northwest Passage name

Some federal politicians aren’t as optomistic about Daryl Kramp’s private member’s bill to amend the name of a sea route through the Arctic Ocean as the local M-P is.

Kramp told our newsroom yesterday his proposal to add Canadian to the Northwest Passage went through second reading on Wednesday, and would go on to committee debate.

However, Yukon Liberal M-P Larry Bagnell called Kramp’s agreement to amend his original proposal to include an Inuktitut name in conjunction with new uses of Canadian Northwest Passage an afterthought that doesn’t undo the damage of not consulting Inuit..

Other Liberals, originally in favour of the new name, also pulled their support after Nunavut’s main land-claim agency proposed using the Inuktitut term for the waterway.

Former Trenton Find-A-Car operator sentencing postponed until December tenth

Sentencing for the former operator of a Trenton used-car outlet has been postponed for two weeks.

Thirty-three-year-old Ryan O’Connor, who pleaded guilty earlier this month in Kingston Court to two counts of fraud, was to be sentenced yesterday, but that was put off until December tenth because some information required by the judge wasn’t available.

O’Connor was the owner and director of Find-A-Car Auto Sales, a group of used car franchises in Trenton and other communities that folded two years ago under the scrutiny of a police investigation.

The charges relate to loans approved by two banks for Find-A-Car customers based on doctored financial profiles and faked supporting documents over a five-and-a-half year period, starting in late 2001..

Bay of Quinte Mohawk Band Council Election Approaching

Two candidates running for the chief’s position on Tyendinaga Territory have only eight days left until the big vote. Catherine Sharbot Duschene is challenging longtime incumbent R. Don Maracle.  Maracle who has held the post for the past 16-years, says settling the Culbertson land claim is one of his priorities, and he expects the Band will take the federal government to court over it.    Maracle says the 14-million dollar water treatment plant is also a priority for next year.  Challenger Duschene says water service is one of her priorities as well and she thinks the service could go ahead without waiting any longer.  Both candidates in the December fifth election appear with host Mary Thomas on Newsmaker Sunday this weekend.

Two Killed on Highway-7 Near Kaladar

Two people have been killed in a two-vehicle crash near Kaladar..

The O-P-P say the accident occured on highway seven seven kilometres west of the community shortly after eight o’clock last night, and traffic was detoured onto highways 37 and 41 until the highway reopened six hours later..

An emergency services worker, who asked not to be identified, said two people in separate S-U-V’s were pronounced dead at the scene, but police haven’t yet commented on any fatalities or injuries.

More information is expected later this morning.

$16.6 m contract goes to western Ontario company

Loyalist College has awarded the contract for its 16-point-six million dollar “Skills, technology and Life Sciences Centre” to a Kitchener company,  Ball Construction Limited.

Robertson Simmons are the architects.   Site preparation on campus will begin in December, with construction getting underway in January.     Loyalist President Maureen Piercy says the Centre will accommodate a number of programs, including electrical robotics manufacturing training, building sciences, environmental sciences, and space for new programs.

Kingston escapee bears arm tattoos

Police have launched a manhunt for a prisoner who escaped from Frontenac Institute near Kingston.

Thirty-eight year old Kevin Douglas Rice was reported missing just before noon today (yesterday).     Although police are not commenting on Rice, callers to our newsroom say he was serving a sentence for armed robbery.     Rice is described as five foot nine, 217-pounds with short grey hair.     He has a tattoo on each arm…one of a “flame” the other a “wolf.”     Anyone seeing the escapee is asked not to approach him, but  to call police.

Another Escapee from Frontenac Institution

Another inmate has escaped from Frontenac Institute near Kingston. Provincial Police have confirmed they are aware of the escape but are not commenting on the situation. Callers to our newsroom say a prisoner serving a sentence for armed robbery escaped from the minimum security facility during the noon hour.

Last June, convicted murderer Andrew Wood escaped from Frontenac with the assistance of a prison psychologist. Both were caught days later north of Kingston. The psycholgist, 35-year old Erin Danto, has since been sentenced to two years less a day after pleading guilty to breach of trust and being an accessory in Wood’s escape.

Military Flight Attendant Found Dead in Brighton

An autopsy is underway today in Toronto on the body of a flight attendant from CFB Trenton. Base Public Affairs Officer Captain Mark Peebles says Corporal Marie France Comeau was found dead in her Brighton residence yesterday. He says the military sends its condolensces to Comeau’s family and loved ones….but, offered no comments on the OPP investigation. Captain Peebles says Marie will be missed by her colleagues in 437 Squadron. Investigators have been at Comeau’s home on Raglan Street in Brighton since early yesterday afternoon. No other information has been released.

A Local Health Unit Sets Interim Budget

The health unit responsible for Lennox and Addington and Frontenac counties has approved an interim 14-million-dollar 2010 budget.

Municipalities will be asked to pay jsut over 5-million dollars of that amount, a two-percent increase over last year.

The province, however, will be expected to increase its payments by 7-percent which would cost it over 9- million dollars.

The Medical officer of Health, Doctor Ian  Gemmill, told yesterday’s board meeting it’s necessary to keep up with the increasing demands on the unit and its staff.  The budget must still be approved by municipal councils and the Ministry of health.