Flood warning remains in place

Following is the latest official statement on high water conditions in the City of Timmins:Continuing dry weather has resulted in improving watershed conditions upstream of Timmins. Although inflows are much reduced compared to last week, it is expected that water levels on the Mattagami River will remain high for the short term. The Flood Warning remains in place in anticipation of possible wet weather forecast for the weekend.
As part of its community flood response plan, local officials are monitoring streamflow and weather conditions. The Upper Mattagami Water Management Committee, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the City of Timmins and Ontario Power Generation will continue to meet on a daily basis to assess these watershed conditions. The Committee will keep the public informed of the situation through further news releases and bulletins.

Porcupine Lake ice jam

Mother Nature was at work with wind and waves to create a unique ice jam this week at the eastern shore of Porcupine Lake. As the ice cover melted on the lake, the hundreds of ice pans were pushed by the wind and waves up onto the shore creating a natural spectacle not often seen in the spring.

Timmins Downtown BIA protests Parcel Pickup

Timmins city council has joined the BIA to protest the decision by Canada Post to have it’s parcel service farmed out to private interests - - in this case, to Shopper’s Drug Mart. Council has passed a resolution of protest.
Council learned of the issue in a letter from Downtown Timmins BIA chair Andrew Marks that “parcel pickup service is no longer available” and that patrons who have a parcel held for pickup must go to either of the Shopper’s Drug Mart locations.
The letter expressed concern that the downtown post office at Second and Balsam is within easy reach of 250 businesses and roughly 2500 employees in the downtown area. The letter says customer service would be well served by maintaining the parcel pickup service in the downtown area. The letter said to do anything else would be a disservice to downtown merchants. Most city councillors agreed.
“You’d think with something like this, they (Canada Post) would consult with the community,” said Councillor Denis Saudino. He added that he was also concerned that council was getting the information from a third party, such as the BIA and that Canada Post should have taken steps to keep council informed. Saudino added that the post office used to be known for “one-stop shopping”, but that the new system would mean “two-stop shopping”.
“It’s a step backwards as far as I am concerned,” he told council.
AFFECT THE EAST END?
“How will this affect post offices in Schumacher and South Porcupine?” Saudino wondered.
Councillor Gary Scripnick called on council to voice unanimous support for the downtown BIA group.
“I do believe this a blow to downtown Timmins,” Scripnick said.
Councillor Mike Doody said the move not only affects downtown workers, but also residents throughout the Ward Five area. He said it would be a burden for those who do not own cars.
“For some this is definitely a loss of service,” said Doody.
Canada Post says the change, in Northern Ontario and across Canada, is to “ take advantage of the longer hours of service (weekends, nights) that outlets in host businesses have.”
Tom Creech, of Canada Post corporate communications says Timmins has two Shoppers Drug Mart outlets in the city to provide postal services.
CANADA POST EXPLAINS
“Canada Post will attempt delivery of a parcel or an item requiring a signature. If the parcel will not fit in a mailbox, if the customer is not home or if it cannot be placed in a secure location which is not easily visible from the street, a card will be left stating where and when the parcel will be available for pickup. If the customer is not home for an item requiring a signature, a card will also be left,” Creech explained.
“Customers who have a postal box at the Timmins Post Office and who have a large parcel or an item requiring a signature will continue to obtain those items from the retail counter at the post office,” Creech continued.

Fire investigation continues

Fire investigators are still working to determine the “how and why” of the fire that destroyed the school gymnasium and library. “We’re just trying to pinpoint the cause, but so far nothing yet,” said Fire Chief Mike Pintar late Tuesday. He added that at this point there is nothing to indicate there is anything suspicious with the fire.
Pintar was on the scene Tuesday afternoon with an investigator from the Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office, Timmins fire department staff and school board officials.
Pintar says his department is reluctant to give any dollar value estimates for fear of clashing with insurance company estimates.
Unofficial estimates are that the damage to the school is several hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Students at the school are being transferred to other schools in the city, likely for the remainder of the school year.
Parents of senior kindergarten students are invited to an information meeting at Ecole St. Gerard tonight at 6:30 p.m. Parents of junior kindergarten students are invited to a seesion at Ecole Don Bosco Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

MORE PHOTOS BELOW - SCROLL DOWN

River conditions improving

Watershed conditions upstream of Timmins continue to improve as streamflows begin to drop in response to the drier weather, it was announced by the Upper Mattagami Water Management Committee on Tuesday.
The committee says it is expected that water levels on the Mattagami River will remain the same or drop slowly in the days to come.
“However, the Flood Warning remains in place in anticipation of possible wet weather forecast for the weekend,” said spokesman Kees Pols.
As part of its community flood response plan, local officials are monitoring streamflow and weather conditions. The water management committee, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the City of Timmins and Ontario Power Generation will continue to meet on a daily basis to assess these watershed conditions. The Committee will keep the public informed of the situation through further news releases and bulletins.

Ecole St. Jean Demolition

Demolition work began this morning at Ecole catholique St. Jean, where fire broke out on Monday. An investigator from the Ontario Fire Marshal's office was also on the scene today. The fire marhsal's office gets involved in a fire investigation whenever the dollar value of damage exceeds $250,000 or whenever there is obvious arson. There has been no indication of arson.

First photos of Ecole catholique St. Jean Fire.

Fire broke out around six oclock this morning at Ecole catholique St. Jean in the north end of Timmins.

Heavy smoke billowed hundreds of metres into the sky as firefighters from Timmins, Schumacher and Mountjoy fought the blaze. Most of the smoke and flame was seen in the southeastern area of the school building, which housed the gym and library.




Click on photos for full size.

Firefighters are expected to be on the scene for most of the day.

Timmins to spend extra $27,000 on grass cutting

Timmins city council appears ready to hire more students to keep the grass cut in city parks and cemeteries. It could cost the taxpayers an additional $27,000 for four more students. Council is expected to make a formal decision on the issue Monday night. The extra cost was not budgeted for.
The issue was raised at last Monday’s city council committee meeting, in response to concerns raised last year about poor grass cutting in city parks and cemeteries.
Timmins leisure services manager Mark Jensen told council that in order to meet the demand to keep city properties neat and clean, his department will need more than the usual compliment of 20 summer students.
Jensen told council there are four options – one is to keep the status quo and stay at 20 summer students, option-two is to hire four more students at the estimated cost of $27,000, option-three is to contract out the landscaping services at an estimated cost of $38,000, option-four is to contract out the landscaping and having the cemetery workers assist the parks workers.
Jensen told council that the extra demand is because the grass in the parks and cemeteries has to be cut twice a week from mid-May to mid-July. While several councillors -- Steve Adams, Pat Bamford, John Curley, Mike Doody, Jack Slatter and Denis Saudino have voiced support to hire more students, two councillors did not.
Councillor Bill Gvozdanovic suggested there were better ways to manage the student crews to get the job done with spending extra money.
He suggested that park maintenance crews could be based out of city arenas, instead of having them all based out of the public works yard on Pine Street South. He suggested valuable time was lost each day having workers travel from public works to the various work sites.
Councillor Gary Scripnick suggested better management would mean more work could be done.
“I am not in favour of additional students,” said Scripnick. “You know too often I’ve gone to a park, I see some students have just run out of work.”
Scripnick says he doesn’t blame the students because they’re not being told what to do. “I don’t think they’re as productive as they can be…. They know they can be more productive than they are,” he told council.
Scripnick said while he is not in favour of hiring more students, he does believe the work of the students should be more closely monitored so that they can be shown how to work more efficiently.

Timmins may become site for solar power

Old mining properties in Timmins may be able to produce a profitable new kind of gold - - energy from golden sunshine.
Goldcorp Porcupine Gold Mines has been approached by consultants looking for vast spaces of empty land that could be set up as solar-panel farms to produce electricity to be sold to the Ontario Power Authority.
It was discussed this week at the meeting of Porcupine Watchful Eye (PWE) that old tailings plots might be considered ideal sites for setting up thousands of solar collector panels that would convert sunshine into electricity.
The concept was revealed by Goldcorp Strategic Development Manager Dave Bucar Wednesday.
“I was approached by a consultant, looking on behalf of various clients, asking where could we put solar panels in Timmins,” Bucar told the meeting.
“For whatever reason, Timmins is apparently a hotbed for solar activity,” Bucar said he was told by the consulting firm.
TEDC IS APPROACHED
“I got a second phone call, from out of the blue, from TEDC (Timmins Economic Development Corporation) and they were approached by some contingent from out of the country. And I got a call and they were asking about opportunities we have for solar panels on our tailings dams,” Bucar continued.
Bucar went on to explain that the consultants said they were looking for 100-acre plots of clear flat land where row upon row upon row of solar panels could be installed for a ten megawatt electrical generation plant.
The Environment Canada website lists cities across Canada that have the most sunshine annually. Timmins is in the top 100, but it is ranked at 89th. Sudbury is listed as 45th. North Bay is listed at 53rd. Sault is listed as 58th.
NO SMOG IN TIMMINS
PWE chair Bill Russell suggested that Timmins may have been approached because of it’s obvious lack of smog, which could enhance the efficiency of solar panels.
The criteria outlined that the100-acre plots of land that would need to be located within a few kilometres of the power grid. While looking at a map of Goldcorp properties in the city, Bucar conceded there are local properties that meet the criteria.
Russell suggested the concept could breathe some new life into old mining properties. Bucar suggested the concept had “very interesting potential” but wondered how such a development would affect the mine closure process where any activity involving tailings is strictly controlled by the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines.

Timmins flood warning for Mattagami River

An official flood warning for the Mattagami River has been issued. It came late Thursday afternoon as Members of the Upper Mattagami Water Management Committee continued to monitor the flow of the river.
The water is higher because of all the snowmelt in the bush between Timmins and Gogama.
A statement issued Thursday afternoon said “water levels on the Mattagami River are expected to rise an additional 4 inches (10 cm) over the next 24 hours as upstream storages are adjusted to accommodate high inflows. Low lying properties next to the Mattagami River will be affected.”
“Although water levels on some of the major rivers upstream of Timmins have started to subside, forecast wet weather in the coming days could lead to further increases in stream flows.”
“As part of its flood response plan City officials will be contacting those landowners located nearest the river to ensure that they are prepared should flood waters start affecting their property,” the news release concluded.

Summer car shelters not allowed in Timmins

It is now almost certain that portable car shelters will not be allowed to be set up in front yards of Timmins residential areas in the summer after all.
City council has indicated it will formally give passage to a new bylaw next Monday that will restrict the use of tent-style car shelters in front yards to the winter months only.
Car shelters in side yards and back yards of residential properties may go up for a period of three years, at which time the owner must apply for new permission, from the committee of adjustment.
Car shelters on residential properties in rural areas, however, will be allowed to be set up on a permanent basis, on any part of the property.
The shelters must not exceed 240 square feet in area and they must be kept in good condition and securely anchored.
The issue of the tent-style car shelters first came before city council earlier this year in response to complaints from citizens.
The Timmins zoning bylaw allows for temporary shelters only during winter months, from October 1 to April 30.
In recent years many citizens have put shelters up and have left them up on a year round basis, taking advantage of the fact that no action would be taken by the bylaw officer unless there was a complaint by neighbors.
“One of the things that has happened in the past is that this has not been enforced. And this is what has lead to a bit of a fuss,” said city councillor Pat Bamford on Monday.
“If they are up at the wrong time of the year, It’s appropriate for people to call city hall and ask that the bylaw be enforced. I know people don’t like to tell on their neighbors, but this is the only way this thing is going to work,” said Bamford.
Some citizens feel the shelters are worthwhile to protect their vehicles from the weather. Others feel the shelters reflect poorly on the neighborhood.
City council had been struggling to change the zoning the bylaw to allow for year round shelters in the front area of a property, provided there were no complaints from the neighbors.
“There has to be a way we can manage and keep the tent structures to a minimum and I think we’ve reached that,” said Bamford.
Feedback from citizens has indicated that while most citizens will tolerate the car shelters in their residential neighborhoods in the winter, most are not willing to see the shelters stay up all year round.
“The vast majority of people do not want these as permanent structures,” Bamford told council.
The common complaints were that the shelters were noisy as they flapped in the wind and that they devalued the look of a neighborhood.
Councillor Denis Saudino said the main concern is that shelters will not be allowed in front yards during the summer.
“I think council did the right thing,” said Saudino. ”I think we have to do what’s best for the majority of residents.”

Former Timmins man wins big in Europe

A 22-year Timmins native has won big playing poker.
Glen Chorny won more than 2 million euros (C$3.2 million) last week with the winning hand in the Grand Final of the European Poker Tour.
Chorny, the son of Greg and Kathy Chorny, formerly of Timmins, won the tour at Monte Carlo’s Bay Hotel and Resort on Thursday.
Chorny won the pot with a pair of aces, playing Texas Hold ‘em, over Denes Kalo of Hungary, who held only a king-queen.
"It was tough out there, like a hard day at the office," Chorny said after the game. "Only the rewards are a lot better.”
In an e-mail note to The Timmins Times, Chorny who is enrolled as a business student at Wilfrid Laurier University, says he does not plan to go back to school right away
“I have one semester back in university whenever I want to finish it, but I plan on playing full time as there is too much too lose now by not playing,” he wrote.
He says he learned to play Texas Hold ‘em poker online when he was a teenager.
“Online poker really helped me learn the game fast,” he wrote .”I decided I could be profitable playing in these big live tourneys and knew I had the skills and thought process that would help me win,” he added.
Chorny left Timmins with his family in the early 1990s, when he was an elementary school student, and moved to Toronto.

Log on and free tree at millsonforestry.com

A Timmins company well-known as a leader in a forest regeneration has issued a unique Earth Day challenge to anyone in the world.
Log on to the new website for Millson Forestry, at www.millsonforestry.com, before the end of the this month, send them an e-mail, and the company will plant a tree in your honour.
The challenge was kicked off Friday as Millson unveiled it’s new corporate website as part of a bid to “diversify” itself as a forestry company.
Company forester Monique Koski says Millson will also be selling trees as a “carbon offset” for individuals and organizations that want to make a pro-active statement for the environment.
“The forest industry has been in an unprecedented slump for quite some time, showing no signs of changing,” Koski told an audience and reporters and city officials on Friday. She said Millson has decided to take it’s product to the e-market with the launch of the new website, which includes an online store.
Internet browsers will be able to buys such products as balsam oil, soaps and “oxygen generators”, also known as trees.
“We will plant any number of trees, for anyone, anywhere, that is willing to offset their carbon footprint,” Koski said.
As an example, Koski says one boreal tree, through its lifetime, will offset the carbon produced to take one roundtrip airplane flight between Toronto and Timmins.
“But that’s just for one seat on the plane,” she says.
She says seedlings are a popular item for sale through the net.
“People can buy seedlings for weddings, anniversaries, all sorts of special events,’ said Koski.
She added that once a seedling is purchased, the buyer or recipient will get an e-mail informing when the seedling is planted and GPS coordinates of the area where the seedling is planted.
“It just makes sense because we grow the trees and we do plant trees,” she said.
“We’re going to plant the trees on private land because you know the government seems somewhat near-sighted and we don’t want to stop these trees from sequestering carbon over their entire lifetime. We’re going to monitor the trees and make sure they survive.”

Timmins Police outstanding recruits

Outstanding Recruits. Timmins Police Service welcomed back two new officers this week as two recent recruits have just returned from their mandatory training at the Ontario Police College and received their new badges. On hand for the ceremony Thursday were Timmins Police Chief Richard Laperriere, left, Timmins Mayor Tom Laughren, Police Const. Kevin Drynan, Police Const. Michael Davidson, and Police Services Board Chair Gerald Petroski. It was noted that Const. Davidson had an outstanding achievement at the Ontario Police College as he was chosen as valedictorian for the graduating class of more than 370 recruits from across Ontario. This is a first for the Timmins Police Service.

Timmins creeks running high, fast and cold

Children and pets should be kept away from all fast flowing creeks in the City of Timmins in the coming days.
That warning comes from spokesman Kees Pols of the Upper Mattagami River Water Management Committee, which issued a news release this week.
“Town Creek and Crawford Creek are flowing very fast and you know that water is super cold,” Pols told The Timmins Times.
“So this is more of a water safety bulletin rather than a flood warning or flood advisory,” he added.
HIGH WATER COMING
But he does advise that with the warmer weather, spring showers and melting snow, there will be conditions of higher water throughout the city.
“City residents can expect all area lakes and rivers to continue rising slowly in the coming days,” says the statement released by the committee. “Although some municipal drains have seen some localized flooding, the larger streams and creeks are open and flowing well. No flooding problems are expected at this time.”
HEAVY SNOW IN THE BUSH
The statement says the snowpack in the bush is “ripe” with water content 110 to 150 per cent above normal. Pols reports that the snow depth is on average 20 inches or 51 centimetres. The water content in that snow is around 6.5 inches or 165 mm.
He says upstream reservoirs on the Mattagami are at or near their minimum.
The statement also says the weather forecast for the next five to ten days is favourable with warmer temperatures, low humidity and windy conditions expected. Some scattered showers are also forecast. The greatest threat for flooding is from a prolonged, warm rain.

Timmins fire may have followed break-in

Timmins Police Service says it believes Wednesday’s Pine Street fire to be “suspicious in nature” based on evidence found near the scene of the fire.
The fire destroyed three businesses on Pine South - - Chez La Coupe, a hair, make-up and tanning salon; What’s “N” Store, a discount shop and Caroline Trahan’s Sound & Soul Studio, a music store.
The fire was first reported around 3:00 a.m. Wednesday. As fire fighters rushed to the scene, they found flames in the northwestern corner on the building on the second floor.
There had been apartments there at one time, but the second floor was empty.
As the effort continued to fight the fire, police were directed to an area east of the burning building, where a cash register was found on the ground. According to a police official, it’s believed the cash register came from a break-in at the building. Timmins Police scene-of-crime officers cordoned the area off immediately and gathered evidence.
One police official has speculated the fire may have resulted from someone trying to cover up a botched break-in.
Battling the blaze took the efforts of firefighters from Timmins, Schumacher, Mountjoy and South Porcupine for more than six hours. The Timmins dayshift was called in to stand by at the main hall in the event there were any other fire calls that day.
The Ontario Fire Marshal’s office was called to assist the investigation.
“We have invited them to join along in the investigation with Timmins Police service to help us determine what caused the fire,” said Timmins Deputy Fire Chief Joe Stojkiewicz.
“Normally when we get a fire this large, with the dollar loss, we have a joint investigation with the police and the fire marshal’s office,” he said.
“We go into the scene and look for burn patterns, fire patterns, consumption,” fire marshal investigator John Montgomery told reporters Wednesday.
“As a general rule of thumb at all of the fires we investigate, we do take debris samples and send those away for forensic examination.” He also estimated the damage to the building and contents to be roughly $300,000 but said only the insurance adjuster would know for sure. The insurance adjuster declined to comment on the value.
On Thursday the investigation continued. Because the building was deemed unsafe for investigators to walk on the second floor, a fire-department aerial truck was used to let the investigators hover over the scene and take photographs.
The building is expected to be demolished and cleared by the end of the week. The fire investigation cont

More fire scene photos by request

Scroll down to see more. Click on any photo to see it full size.

Collision in Timmins

At least one person was taken to Timmins and District Hospital Wendesday afternoon when two vehicles crashed at the corner of Jubilee and University in Timmins. The collision occurred around 4:00 p.m. and causes traffic to be backed on Jubilee for about 30 minutes. Timmins Police Service is investigating.

Daytime Fire Scene Photo

Firefighters remained on the scene at outside the burned remains of 86 Pine Street South in case of any flare ups. Investigator John Montgomery of the Ontario Fire Marhsal's office has been called to look into finding the cause of the fire where the damage is estimated at $300,000. A city official says the building is likely to be torn down by the end of the week.

First photos of Pine Street fire (posted 4:00 a.m.)

A five-alarm fire in downtown Timmins has destroyed one of the older buildings on Pine Street South. The fire was first reported shortly after 3:00 a.m. and is being fought by firefighters from Timmins, Mountjoy, Schumacher and South Porcupine. (Click photos to see them full size)