As Prescott prepares for another Kraft Hockeyville Rally, the organizers are pleased with the effort the community has shown by bombarding social media.
Hundreds of stories and pictures have been submitted to Hockeyville’s Facebook and Twitter feeds, including from recent rallys that drews hundreds of people.
Their bid got in just before nominations and the on-site submission period closed.
The Fort Town Throwdown is Friday at noon as they expect a large crowd of people donning jerseys to head to Fort Wellington.
A 62-year-old catholic priest from Seeley’s Bay was arrested this week on historical sexual assault charges.
Renee Lebel was taken into custody on Monday, accused of sexual assault and exploitation.
O-P-P Sergeant Kristine Rae says it stems from an incident involving a teenage boy nearly eight years ago.
Lebel’s next court date is March 27th.
Brockville’s crime rate dropped a little bit last year as calls for service fell 0.2 percent in 2011.
But as the story was throughout the entire year, a closer look at the numbers shows that crimes were down in almost every important category.
That includes robberies down 56 percent, theft down 26 percent and drops in assaults, sexual assaults, arson, break-and-enter, mischeif, domestic disputes and fraud.
There were some small increases in drug offenses and noise complaints, and drunk driving offenses went up by 34 percent.
Meanwhile, Police spending was just a little bit higher than what they expected.
They went about 39 thousand dollars above their budget of 6.97 million.
More money had to be committed to human resources and court services, but most of it was tempered by an extra 280-thousand dollars in criminal checks.
Brockville Police continue to search for a suspect from the armed robbery at the Ultramar Gas Bar Friday night.
A man with a handgun walked in at about eleven o’clock, leaving with money from the cash register.
He has a unique description in that he’s pretty short – only between five feet tall and five-foot-three.
But he’s also pretty big for that size, between 180 and 200 pounds and could be between the ages of 25 and 35.
Things weren’t looking good in the middle part of 2011 as Brockville appeared to be heading for another year-end defecit – but my how things have changed.
The year-end variance report from the finance department projects that the city finished with a surplus of nearly 123-thousand dollars.
That’s a switch from the more than 200-thousand dollar shortfall predicted last June as staff gradually chipped away at the number.
There are several factors involved, like money left over in winter control, lower legal fees and fewer tax write-off applications.
How much did the ten-person Brockville council cost in 2011?
The answer is 191-thousand dollars according to a new city report, up from 188-thousand in 2010.
Mayor Dave Henderson’s salary went up more than 13 percent to 37-thousand.
He also claimed the most expenses at nearly nine thousand dollars, which is about two thousand less than the year before.
Have a plate of pasta, help out Rotary Park.
There’s a spaghetti dinner fundraiser from four to eight today at the Mill Restaurant with the Brockville Braves acting as servers.
The cost is ten dollars a plate.
The club hopes to raise 350-thousand dollars by the end of spring.
There’s been another possible abduction attempt in the northern part of the county.
This time a 12-year-old girl in Merrickville says she was offered a ride by a stranger at 8:30 yesterday morning on St. Lawrence Street.
He was in his 50′s or 60′s with grey hair and a beard in a light coloured van.
On February 8th a 10-year-old boy was approached in Kemptville.
Warm temperatures are not ruining winter fun.
There are two big outdoor events happening this weekend including Pondapalooza in Gananoque and the Front of Yonge Winter Festival which both start today.
Pondapalooza has gone to Plan B: since the St. Lawrence River ice isn’t suitable for play, both the hockey and curling games have been moved onto land.
Mallorytown won’t need snow to set off fireworks tonight.
There’s a schedule for Pondapalooza at 1000islandstourism.com while info on the Winter Carnival can be found in our events section.
Unfortunately not all events have escaped unscathed.
Tomorrow’s Winter Fun Day at the Mac Johnson Wildlife Area has been cancelled.
They will still have skating and hot chocolate from noon to three on Family Day.
Monday is Family Day, so there are some service changes but not as many as usual.
Garbage pick-up is being pushed back a day from Monday to Tuesday, and from Tuesday to Wednesday and there aren’t any outpatient services at B-G-H.
BUT… Brockville buses WILL be running, which is a switch from most other holidays.
