Flood tops the news again in 2002

Ken Johnston

Jan. 8th
Warmer than normal temperatures prevented the Rainy River from freezing in places.
Local snowmobile racing enthusiast Darren Lowes awoke January 5th to find his racing trailer had gone through the ice overnight in Detroit Lakes. While no one was hurt the trailer made national newscasts.
Long time reeve of Chapple, Cecil Wilson, retired from the post after 25 years.
Jan. 15th
Rainy River opts out of blue box program.
Joan Hall received her 50 Year Pin from the Legion Ladies Auxiliary.
Many ice hut owners, wary of the warm weather and poor ice conditions pulled their fish shacks off the Rainy River.
Knox United Church in Rainy River kicked off its 100 Anniversary celebrations with a potluck supper.
Jan. 22nd
A call for volunteers to help host delegates to the World Health Organization conference went out.
Jan. 29th
Over 5,000 mail in cards were returned in favour of an all out smoking ban in workplaces. Some 30,000 cards were sent out in Northwestern Ontario by the Northwestern Health Unit. This was the beginning of a big effort by the health unit to eliminate smoking in all workplaces.
A committee was formed to plan for the 100th anniversary of Rainy River.
Nicole Wood’s rink of Julie Tiboni, Nicole Blakney and Carla Armstrong won the Rainy River Ladies Women’s Bonspiel.
Feb. 5th
The long weekend in August of 2004 was selected as the date to hold the 100th Anniversary celebrations for Rainy River.
Jena Caouette, Kelli Kuzyk and Trienke van Rozen announced their intention to run for Lions Winter Carnival Queen.
Feb. 12th
Jason Kaus of Rainy River was sent to Afghanistan as part of Operation Apollo. Kaus serves in the Princess Patricias of the Canadian Infantry.
Flags were ordered to half mast in honour of Princess Margaret who passed away Feb. 9th.
Feb. 19th
Council passed an interim tax levy.
NWHU urges municipalities to pass smoke-free bylaws.
Jackie (nee Bonot) McCormick, formerly of Stratton, won the provincial university curling championship.
Peter Grant’s rink of Dave Armstrong, Larry Armstrong and Art Berard won the Rainy River Men’s Curling Bonspiel.
Feb. 26th
Trevor Bonot lead the Rainy River High School’s boys curling team of Matt Neilson, Jason Seguin and Kevin Nordberg to victory at the NORWOSSA championships.
Former Pinewood resident, Ron Duhamel, was appointed to the federal senate.
Joe Dobransky and Oliver Gibbins of Morson won the 5th Annual Morson Ice Fishing Derby.
The Lake of the Woods Bantam B hockey team won the Districts on Feb. 17th.
Mar. 5th
R. D. Koeneman Lumber plant in Rainy River was seized for back taxes.
Jena Caouette and Kelli Kuzyk tied for carnival queen.
Angela Lee of Stratton won provincial Ontario College Women’s Curling championship.
Mar. 12th
Bench warrants were issued for owners of R.D. Koeneman Lumber in relation to charges laid for Workplace Safety violations.
Chapple Clerk, Doris Dyson, was honoured for 25 years of service.
Mar. 19th
The chimney at Susan’s Corner Store came crashing through the roof while a contractor was working to remove it from the building. Fortunately no one was killed inside as the store was open for business. Lainey Carpenter did suffer a broken leg.
Census figures showed a decline in populations across the Rainy River District. Rainy River dropped 2.7% to 961.
Craig Armstrong’s rink of Heidi Bolen-Kreger, Terry Lee and Kelli Nielson, all from Stratton, won the RR Mixed Curling Bonspiel.
Mar. 26th
Bench warrants for the owners of R.D. Koeneman Lumber were lifted.
Local Ontario civil servants went on strike.
Angie Lee of Stratton finished second at the Ontario Mixed Curling championships.
Apr. 2nd
The Trevor Bonot rink brought home silver from NWOSSAs.
Apr. 9th
Rainy River sewer rates went up by 67% from $9 to $15 per month. The increase was put in place to help pay for much needed sewer system upgrades.
Shantelle Davidson set a school record by clocking a time of 12:29 in the 3200m event in Bemidji.
Apr. 16th
The Rainy River opened April 14th.
Area residents were “wowed!” by the cast of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Jeff Fraser of Rainy River had the starring role. Many other locals were in the production.
Apr. 23rd
NDP leader and RR M.P.P. Howard Hampton hoped to short-circuit the privatization of Ontario Hydro.
Heidi Friesen and Rachel McBride of Sturgeon Creek Alternative School in Stratton won berths to the National Science Fair Competition in Saskatoon.
Riverview School gets $3,400 grant from Shell Canada to plant trees in the school yard.
Archie and Eleanor Wiersema of Rainy River received the prestigious Bill Gibson Award for their years of dedication to the local federation of agriculture.
Just For Kix Mini Kix dancers danced their way into first place at a competition in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
Apr. 30th
Tighter border security was discussed at a meeting in Baudette of law enforcement officials.
The spring cattle sale in Stratton fetched strong prices.
Eric Johnston, 12, formerly of Rainy River, won gold at the provincial gymnastics championships.
May 7th
CNR employee, Tom McCormick, was honoured at the annual CNR Retirement Banquet in Rainy River.
May 14th
People from all over the world visited the Rainy River District for the World Health Organization conference. Some of the sessions were held in Rainy River, but the bulk of them were in Fort Frances.
The Lake of the Woods high school track team qualified for the state meet.
May 22nd
About 50 people attended a public meeting on the NWHU’s proposal to make all workplaces smoke free. The verdict from the presenter at the meeting, Jennifer McKibbon of NWHU, was that it will happen regardless whether communities pass bylaws to ban smoking in workplaces or not.
Shar Hanson and Danielle Shrumm received the RRHS Principal’s award for outstanding leadership at the school.
Shauna McInerney broke records in track meets at both the conference and state levels.
Men’s fastball returned to Rainy River with the RR Legion winning its first two home games.
May 28th
Rachel McBride of Stratton received honourable mention at the National Science Fair.
June 4th
The Border Gasthaus announced its intention to partially open June 14th.
Formal notices to businesses were sent to all NWO businesses asking them to declare their intentions regarding going or not going smoke free. A July 31st deadline was set by the Northwestern Health Unit for the declaration.
Oliver Gibbins of Morson and Harvey Cochrane of Fort Frances won the first ever Emo Walleye Classic.
Catherine (nee Bell) Reid and Mildred (nee Bell) Wentworth visited Rainy River from Australia. The pair came home to visit life long friend Helen Ricci. All three girls grew up in Rainy River. It was the first time the pair had been back to Rainy River in as long as 22 years.
Shauna McInerney made more Lake of the Woods School history. She, as an individual competitor will be going the Minnesota State finals in the 200m and 400m dashes. No female athlete has done that before from Lake of the Woods. McInerney hails from Rainy River but competes with the Baudette school as part of an international sports cooperative.
June 11th
Heavy rains flooded area homes and washed out roads.
A vintage train whistle was mounted on a pole at the Town Garage. The Rainy River Railroad Museum (4008) Committee raised funds to purchase a huge compressor to blow the whistle off every day at Noon.
The Rainy River Legion Ladies Auxiliary turned 75.
Shauna McInerney won the annual Rainy River High School Talent Show. Kayla Lauzon of Barwick came in second.
Riverview students planted trees on the school grounds as part of a “Greening” project. They received $3,400 from Shell Canada to purchase the trees.
June 18th
After about 13.5 inches of rain fell in 36 hours all along the Rainy River watershed region, the runoff came, and kept coming. Officials in Rainy River and several other communities declared a state of emergency and huge efforts to build a dike along the southern portion of Rainy River as well as sandbagging of many homes in low lying areas were undertaken. For three days the townspeople sat poised to evacuate people in the lower blocks of Rainy River.
At the same time communities to the north such as Morson and areas north of Pinewood were also devastated by the huge amounts of water that travelled across their land, roads and homes on its way to the Rainy River and eventually Lake of the Woods.
June 25th
CNR had to reroute trains along its northern line as it faced the wrath of Mother Nature in the Rainy River District as well. It had 30 washouts along its tracks east of Rainy River, with one of them nearly 1 kilometre in length.
Frank Stoyka of Arbor Vitae has been invited to play his unique instrument, the bed-panjo on the last episode of CBC Radio’s Basic Black.
July 3rd
With the park looking like a war zone, the annual Canada Day fireworks were postponed until Railroad Daze.
July 9th
Another 4.33 inches of rain fell July 4th and homes in the bottom half of Rainy River were surrounded by floodwaters again. However it was the dike built to protect them that kept the water from running off into the river, that caused the flooding.
Percy Champagne of Barwick was chosen to chair the Riverside Health Care Facilities Board.
July 16th
Lt. Gov. of Ontario James Bartleman visited Rainy River.
Dead birds appearing in the Rainy River area were sent in for testing for the West Nile Virus. To date six birds in the region have been tested all have returned negative results for the mosquito born disease which can cause encephalitis (inflammation of the brain).
July 23rd
Rumours of the Rainy River rail terminal reopening abounded. Officials with CNR confirmed that they are looking at that option.
Railroad Daze was deemed a resounding success.
The annual Rainy River Fun Fly drew about 40 pilots.
Don Gall’s slowpitch team won the annual Railroad Daze tournament.
July 30th
The town of Rainy River announced that it will rip up many of the streets in Rainy River to replace sewer lines said to have been damaged during the June flood of 2002.
The West Nile Virus has been confirmed in jurisdictions all around NWO, but no cases have been found here yet.
CNR has begun inquiring about accommodations for train crews in Rainy River, but still won’t confirm that the terminal will reopen.
Aug. 7th
Guy Crackel wins an unprecedented 5th Rainy River Open Golf Tournament.
The dike constructed in June to protect the town of Rainy River from the rising river, was ripped up.
Willy Almers, Hilton Brumwell, Alphonse Brouillette, Maurice Desrosier, Chuck Hall, Lloyd Hodges, Mike Meunier, Herb Nelson and Mike Olinyk were decorated with the Netherlands Commemorative Medal.
Extensive ditching and improving of ditching in Rainy River has begun to prepare for the next flood event. There have been two in the past year alone.
Aug. 13th
Tragedy struck as Mr. Fred Archie of Big Grassy drowned after being thrown from his boat on Lake of the Woods while commercial fishing. His wife was also with him but managed to swim to shore.
The final call for flood claims has been issued by the Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program.
Pat Handorgan of Morson, and Fred Greene of Shoal Lake won the Kenora Bass tournament bringing home $20,000 in prize money.
The Rainy River Legion Fastball team have been named league champions after an impressive 16-2-1 record on the season.
The Pinewood Bears won the RR Legion Fastball tournament.
Aug. 20th
Plans for CNR to start changing crews in Rainy River again were put on hold this week as issues were raised by the employees unions.
Morson residents attended a public meeting on NWHU’s proposal to make the region’s workplaces smoke-free. The consensus among the 15 people in attendance was that do not feel a law is necessary.
RR Legion Fastball team won their first two playoff games defeating both Big Grassy and Pinewood.
Aug. 27th
Kenora’s Frank McClymont and Rick Savage won the 9th annual Morson Bass Classic.
RR Legion Fastball team continued its trek to championship status, defeating Barwick and Sight and Sound in the next round of playoffs.
Sis Wilson was crowned Emo Fair Queen.
West Nile Virus has been confirmed in the region.
Sept. 4th
The Rainy River Legion Fastball Team, “The Royals”, capped off their 16-2-1 season by going undefeated in the playoffs beating the defending champs from 2001, the Emo Bulldogs 3-2.
Sparkie and Linda Holmes of Rainy River won a $40,000 trip from a case of Labatt Blue.
Judy Vanerzeeuw of Emo took over as manager of the LCBO in Rainy River.
Sept. 10th
A huge, 714 pound, bear was killed near Oak Grove Camp. It is thought to be a record sized black bear for the region.
Rainy River rail crews are still having to drive to Fort Frances for some trains, despite the fact that CNR reopened the RR terminal last week. However, only some of the trains are being stopped and started out of Rainy. Others are still using Fort Frances as a base of crew changes.
Water levels have returned to normal on the Rainy River and Lake of the Woods.
Shantelle Davidson of Rainy River, brought home a silver medal from the first cross country meet of the year in Roseau.
Sandra Tankard has been named Reverend of the Anglican churches of Warroad, Rainy River and Emo.
High winds downed buildings near the mouth of the Rainy River. Bennett and Dawn Drennan’s farm lost a barn and shingles were ripped off the roof of their home.
Sept. 17th
Rainy River received the largest portion of interim disaster relief money announced by Minister of Municipal Affairs Chris Hodgson. Rainy River received $368,791 in interim relief money.
Shantelle Davidson brings home gold from Warroad cross-country meet.
Sept. 24th
Mike Vacura and Marni Korpi of Roseau won the 4th Annual Rainy River Walleye Tournament. They received $15,000 for first prize.
The new Rainy River Ontario Provincial Police station officially opened. Ontario O.P.P. Commissioner Gwen Boniface was on hand to do the ribbon cutting honours.
Ben Johnson of Kakabeka Falls was awarded the coveted Golden Hoe award and a cheque for $1,000 as his 729 pound pumpkin tipped the scales at the 8th annual Rainy River Valley Giant Pumpkin Festival.
Voyageur Panel was recognized for its exemplary safety record.
Oct. 8th
The annual Stratton Calf Sale saw 1,070 head move through the sales barn and bring in good prices.
Leonard Proteau, 70, formerly of Rainy River made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for hitting more than 1,500 bulleyes with a 22 calibre rifle.
Senator Ron Duhamel, formerly of Pinewood, Ont. passed away.
Oct. 16th
New owners, Allen Pratt and Sarah Berg took over Rainy River Drugs from long time owners Robert and Gill Stamler.
Oct. 22nd
Work on replacing about 1/3 of Rainy River’s dilapidated sewer lines began.
The NWHU announced it will begin enforcing smoke-free workplace laws on Jan. 1st, 2003.
Shantelle Davidson and Matt Neilson have been invited to run in a cross country 10 km run in Spain over the Christmas break.
Oct. 29th
Don Marquis of Rainy River received a national honour from CNR for his long time dedication to the Operation Lifesaver program in the Rainy River region.
Marty Johnston has won another berth to the national chess championships next summer in Kapuskasing, Ont. This is his third trip to the nationals.
RR Figure Skating Club welcomed a new teacher, Mrs. Cory Voth of Emo.

Nov. 5th
The Stratton Top of the Line Cattle sale tripled in size this year.
Rainy River homeowners could face big fines if they do not have their basement drainage systems pumping outside rather than into the sewer system.
Rainy River council sought an extension from the province to complete flood damage repairs next spring.
Nov. 12th
More than 300 people attended the annual Remembrance Day services at the Rainy River Legion and cenotaph.
Jerry Fisher of Morson received the Bob Giles award; a prestigious award for tourist operators who make outstanding contributions to resourced based tourism in Ontario.
Nov. 19th
The Rainy River froze over early this year. Last year it was not frozen until mid January.
Shane Aikenhead of Rainy River has made the University of Minnesota, Crookston, 2002-03 golf team.
Nov. 26th
Flu shot numbers in the Rainy River area are reportedly down this year.
Former Rainy River man, Kim Hannam, spearheads efforts to help the less fortunate in Guatemala. Local United churches in Rainy River and Stratton opt to send help to his efforts.
Dec. 3rd
Joan Hall wins $600 in Rainy River Reindeer Bucks as part of the annual RR Chamber of Commerce Christmas Merchant Madness.
Many RR vocalists and musicians were part of Handel’s Messiah, performed in both International Falls and Baudette.
Dec. 10th
RR town council had a heated debate over money spent on new furnaces for the old CNR station; home of the town office and seniors drop-in centre; and plans to study renovating the town garage for a possible move of the town office to it.
Riverview students participated in a worldwide literacy program.
Dec. 17th
The Rainy River Community Choir held their final concert of the year in RR. It was their annual Christmas concert.
Dec. 23rd
Glen Archie was reelected to a third consecutive term as Chief of Big Grassy.
RR received $100,000 from the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines to help with repair costs from the June 2002 flooding in Rainy River.
The Norwalk virus was confirmed in the region.
Joe Kaliska, Gerry Marchuk, Don Budreau and Manny Nordin received the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for life long exceptional service to their community.
Both Riverview School and the Baudette Just for Kix Christmas concerts drew big crowds.