By Tom Parisi

Goldcorp has been given the go ahead to build an overpass spanning Goldmine Rd to Vipond Rd.

City council approved the move despite growing pressure by nearby businesses and residents who are opposing the construction.

An unkown complainant went so far as too hire a lawyer to draft a letter saying, the overpass goes against the city’s Official Plan.

Mayor Tom Laughren says this is not the case.

“We understand the concerns the letter brings up and they worry us a little too, but Goldcorp is a well respected community partner and we know they’ll do what it takes to build it right.”

The letter stated dust, noise, and vibrations would ruin the city’s infrastructure and go against building plans, but Laughren again assured the public Goldcorp is fully cooperating with city staff.

“The city engineer and planning services staff don’t believe the lawyers arguments are enough to throw off the plans and therefore we will proceed as planned.”

No construction has been set but we can expect to a shovel in the ground come the new year.

By Tom Parisi

After months of persuasion city council voted to go ahead with plans for a new hotel.

“Anyone who’s tried to get a hotel room in Timmins knows how hard it can be,” said Mayor Tom Laughren.

The new hotel will be located on the Carpet Man/Carpet One protperty next to Walmart and will have about 83 rooms and a restaurant.

“I think it’s about time we get a shovel in the ground,” said Ward 1 councilor Gary Scripnick, “I know we took our time with it but there were certain terms that needed fine tuning.”

When the project was first proposed, neighboring business complained potential hotel customers would complain of the noise, dust and potential vibrations but the issues has since been resolved.

“The neighboring businesses and the hotel owners settled their differences which will allow the developpers to proceed with building the hotel.”

Laughren added we should expect to see construction being in the new year.

The Ontario Provincial Police officially kicked off their annual RIDE program Friday as the festive season begins.

With a lot of Christmas parties and gatherings comes an increase in drunk driving.

Constable Marc Depatie told EZ Rock, locally the OPP works in conjunction with other organizations. “We’re going to couple up with MADD and we’ll also be working alongside officers from the Timmins Police Service as well, because we have a joint interest in making these communties as safe as possible during the festive season.” Depatie said.

“Impaired driving is always a safety concern year round, but it gets a little bit worse at the festive holiday season. We want the motoring public to make a plan now as to how they are going to get home. Plan ahead so that you dont end up in trouble with the law or cause some sort of undue and highly preventable tragedy in our area.”

Daptie went on to explain how the RIDE program works. “RIDE functions in that officers form up in groups and block off roadways in and around Timmins and South Porcupine to verify that the person behind the wheel is in fact sober.”

The RIDE program goes from November 25th to January 1st.

By Tom Parisi

Northern Ontario is set to host the first it’s first ever virtual summit.

The virtual summit is a internet based platform used to host conferences, trades shows and panel discussions on issues in the north.

Frank Roch, Manager of Virtual Shows Canada says the summit will be held Dec. 6th and will feature a number of topics including Marketing Northern Ontario and a Mayors Roundtable.

“Our company is trying to reintroduce northern Ontario to thw world again from a business standpoint and cut travel costs.”

Roch said there will be more summit dates set up in the near future.

“We’re also looking at summits being held in french. We don’t want to limit who can use this medium, we want everybody to get familiar with it and eventually use it as often as possible.

Roch added some complete conference may be saved for up to one year incase you miss it while certain summits will involve a registration fee.

“The summits with fees attached will only be saved for up to five days.”

The first summit gets underway December 6th.

By: Christina Hajjar

Congratulations to Harvey McQuestion of Timmins who is the proud new owner of a VITA Scooter from Motion Specialties and Provost Roofing.

It was his name Mayor Tom Laughren picked out of the bucket out of 65 ballots on Thursday.
“Thanks to the media we’ve had people all the way from Kapuskasing, Hearst as well as Matheson and Iroquois Falls area.” Laurie Simmonds of Motion Specialties said.

Gabriel Provost of Provost roofing said he is thrilled to be a part of giving back to the community. “It makes me happy to see people come in to put their names in the draw…They need to be able to ride one of these machines and be comfortable in this snow we’ve been getting and be able to go from point A to point B.” Provost said.

McQuestion get’s to choose between a silver, black or white VITA Scooter.

Officers on the South Porcupine OPP’s D platoon have enjoyed participating in Movember for 2011.

The hairy fundraiser allows for male participants to grow a mustache during the month of November to raise funds and public awareness for prostate cancer research.

The female members of the platoon are doing their part as well by offering moral support for their hairy shift mates.

So far, D platoon has raised over $1100.00 and the male officers are growing mustaches that would make Lanny McDonald envious.

Anyone interested in sponsoring a member of D platoon is asked to attend the South Porcupine OPP to make a donation towards this most worthy cause.

By Tom Parisi

College Boreal and Northern College are teaming up to help you find a job.

Both colleges announced the opening of a fully bilingual employment centre Tuesday, designed to help former students and the general public upgrade their current job status or refine their resumes.

President of Northern College Fred Gibbons says the point of the centre is have a one-stop-shop appraoch to job seeking.

“Both colleges felt it was the easiest thing to do.”

“We’ve seen and heard of many people walking into employment centres knowing what they want but could never find the right door or office. With this centre, we will eliminate that problem and makes sure anyone can get what they need in their prefered language.”

With a large francophone population, Gibbons said it was an obvious choice to partner with College Boreal.

“Again this goes towards eliminating as many doors and processes as possible. If anyone can walk in and get waht they need, we’ve done our job.

The centre, located at 303 2nd Ave, will employ 19 full time bilingual staff and is open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

By: Christina Hajjar

How early should children be going to school?

A new study recommends publicly funded preschool education for all Canadian children beginning at the age of two.

Registered Early Childhood Educator in Timmins, Deborah Chornobey told EZ Rock ECE is beneficial to preschool aged kids.

“Children who are exposed to different mediums and aspects of learning do succeed more in school. The school system quite often compliments us because they do see the difference between a child who has attended a day care as opposed to those that didn’t.” Chornoby said.

The study also says publicly funded early childhood education would be a benefit to the economy, because parents could return to work sooner after child rearing.

Erin Holmes, Professor of Early Childhood Education at Northern College told EZ Rock public funding would mean equality for all families. “It would result in a more equal system across Canada. Currently there’s a lot of differentials when it comes to the funding components and who can access the services, as well as long wait lists.” Holmes said.

“It would also allow for the cost feasibility for parents, so they would be able to access these services they require.”

For the full study CLICK HERE

Garett Chisholme

An update on a major collision at Algonquin Boulevard and Spruce Street.

It appears a Timmins Tranist Bus was turning right when it was struck by a transport travelling eastbound.

Witnesses say two passengers and the bus driver were taken to hospital.

Police are on scene doing accident recreation and assesment, traffic in being routed North on Spruce and anyone travelling West on Algonquin through the Tim Hortons parking lot.

By Tom Parisi

The city is hosting Open House sessions tonight and Thursday for the public to bring ideas on how efficiently use park land.

City Planner Andre Robichaud said the city has ideas but they would prefer to hear from the public first.

“We’re going into this with an open mind and hope the feedback we get will help us plan for the futur.”

A total of 17 parks have been targeted for either development or to be transformed into something else.

Robichaud said that list is not set in stone.

“Depending on what the public or we come up with some parks may be added or taken off that list.

The Public sessions are scheduled for Thursday and Friday night from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at City Hall and the Whitney Arena.

For more information adn a complete list of parks click here