Archive for December, 2008
Posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
We heard her tearful, sobbing pleas for help for what seemed like years before she was finally released from a Mexican Prison this Spring. Brenda Martin is the Quinte Broadcasting newsmaker of the year for 2008. The 51-year old Trenton native was convicted of money-laundering in Mexico and sentenced to five years in April after spending several years in prison without ever being charged in connection with a multi-million dollar internet fraud scheme orchestrated by her former boss Richard Alan Waage of Edmonton . An Edmonton journalist alerted our newsroom and other local media to Martin’s plight and it eventually became a national story making it to front pages across the country until her release and transfer back to Canada on May 1st. Martin is currently living in Trenton.
Posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
It wasn’t the New Years greeting that nearly 90 employees at a Belleville plant were wishing for this afternoon. Workers at Interface Flooring on Lahr Drive in the Northeast Industrial Park were informed, late this afternoon, before leaving for their New Year’s break that the facility will be closing at the end of February leaving all of them without a job. Callers to our newsroom say company officials blamed the downturn in the economy for the Atlanta, Georgia-based company’s decision to close its only Canadian faciility. Interface is the world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet. Company officials have been unavailable for comment.
Posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
Four people playing mailbox baseball have struck out with the Quinte West OPP. Officers reponded to reports of a man with a baseball bat and smashed mailboxes on Bernard Long, Miron and Stockdale Roads and County Road-5 overnight. A vehicle with five men and a woman inside was stopped by OPP on Stockdale Road early this morning. Four of the occupants have been charged with mischief. If you find your mailbox damaged this morning you’re asked to contact Quinte West OPP.
Posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
A repatriation ceremony will be held this afternoon at C-F-B Trenton at 2o’clock today for three Canadian soldiers, returning home in flag-draped coffins aboard military planes from Afghanistan.
Private Michael Freeman, Sergeant Gregory Kruse and Warrant Officer Gaetan Roberge were killed on the weekend in two separate roadside bombings — the same fate that has met six other soldiers in just December alone.
In fact, the U-S ambassador to Afghanistan says the number of roadside bombs has doubled, from one-thousand in 2007 to roughly two-thousand this year.
Posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
Alcohol reportedly played a major role in a crash that caused massive damage to a Trenton convenience store and wrote-off the car that crashed into it. Quinte West OPP responded, at 3 o’clock this moning, after a car slammedn into West Street Convenience. They found a man laying on the street suffering from a compound fracture of his right leg. He was taken to KGH for treatment. The vehicle in question had been taken without the owners permission. Charges are pending. The suspects name hasn’t been released….but, police say he is a Trenton man.
Posted on Sunday, December 28th, 2008
Hydro One is reporting countless power outages as a result of the extreme weather.
A caller to our newsroom says the power went out in rural Marmora and Lake around 9:30 this morning.
Hydro One is reporting power outages across Ontario, sweeping eastward alongside the storm.
The areas hardest hit in our listening area right now seem to be those around Tweed…where thousands of households are without electricity.
A diagram on the power company’s Web site shows the longer the wind has been in an area, the greater the extent of the damage.
Posted on Sunday, December 28th, 2008
The drunk-driving prevention programme is still going strong in Belleville.
City police say they stopped 835 vehicles Friday night.
Of those stopped for questioning, two separate stops resulted in drug seizures.
Two drivers were charged with having a blood alcohol level of over 80 milligrams… one of those a 19-year-old male driver from Kingston.
He will appear in court in January.
Posted on Sunday, December 28th, 2008
A gun and the wrong license plates have landed criminal charges for a couple in Belleville.
City police say they were at a north end plaza doing parking enforcement when they noticed one vehicle allegedly displayed illegal license plates.
When police saw a man and a woman get into the suspect vehicle and begin to drive away, officers stopped them for questioning.
It was then that officers saw what appeared to be a handgun slotted between the seats.
The couple was arrested and the man was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and breach of probation.
The weapon turned out to be a pellet gun.
Posted on Sunday, December 28th, 2008
Belleville Police responded to two separate attempted robberies in the past 24 hours.
In one case, Belleville officers on duty with the RIDE programme responded to the call of an alarm at the LCBO in Stirling…and arrested one person after they found liquor in the suspect’s vehicle.
In the other case, officers responded to an alarm at a Belleville Transit building on Coleman Street…to find nothing had been taken…but that the place had been damaged. Police suspect the alarm scared off the culprits in that case.
Posted on Sunday, December 28th, 2008
Wind gusts of up to 90 kilometres an hour are heading our way.
Forecasters at the Weather Office at CFB Trenton say a cold front is heading toward Quinte from the west, and bringing with it the rough weather.
The weather office predicts the most severe weather will start around 11:00 this morning.
The city of London has already felt the brunt of the cold front.
Forecasters say wind speeds there reached 100 kilometres an hour there earlier today.
Posted on Saturday, December 27th, 2008
Belleville Police say they stopped several vehicles during a Boxing Day RIDE check last night (DEC26).
They charged a 46-year-old Belleville woman with possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking when they allegedly found her in the downtown core with cocaine and marijuana.
Police also charged two 29-year-old men in two separate instances of alleged drunk driving.
Posted on Saturday, December 27th, 2008
Provincial police and the Ministry of Transportation are weighing in on road conditions.
OPP say they are dealing with more than 50 collisions in the area east of highway 15 near Kingston and northward to Ottawa. One section of the 401 near Cornwall is even closed.
They’re citing freezing rain and “accumulation” on the roads for the problems…and advising anyone with travel plans in Eastern Ontario to stay home for the time being.
Drivers heading westbound to Toronto will have it a bit easier.
The Ministry of Transportation says it’s fog that will keep you moving slowly westward.
Officials are especially advising of poor conditions on rural roads.
Posted on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
Your favourite places may not be open when you need them this holiday…but it should come as no surprise.
Financial institutions like banks and credit unions will all be closed this Christmas and Boxing Day.
Most drug stores…with your holiday heartburn remedies… are closed for Christmas but open for Boxing Day.
Liquor and beer stores are closed both days.
The Bayview Medical Clinic in Belleville is closed on Christmas Day but opens again on Boxing Day.
There is no general mail delivery on Christmas nor Boxing Day…but some postal outlets will be open on Boxing Day.
All grocery stores will be closed on the big day but many will open on Boxing Day.
All government services are closed both days.
All public transit closes down for both days.
Posted on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
A 15-year-old boy has escaped injury in a traffic accident on Pine Street in Belleville.
Police, fire and ambulance crews responded after a vehicle ran into a hydro pole at nine o’clock last night. The 15-year-old driver was extricated from the car with the “jaws of life”.
The boy’s 37-year-old mother was charged by police with allowing a person under the age of 16 to drive. The vehicle was demolished, but, fortunately no one was hurt.
Posted on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
A few changes to the garbage and recyling collection schedule in the Quinte area this week.
Garbage pickup in Thurlow has been moved from tomorrow to Friday, but recycling there has been pushed back two days, to Saturday.
Recycling collection in Belleville’s East Hill area will go ahead, as usual, on Friday, but garbage won’t be picked up until Saturday.
In Quinte West….garbage will be picked up in Trenton and in North Murray ward Friday, and recycling will be done this coming Saturday.
In Frankford….garbage will be collected Monday and Tuesday, with no change to recycling pick-up.
Posted on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
It looks like it’s the middle of winter with all the snow out there, but the fire chief in Quinte West says ice conditions are hardly safe.
Firefighters and the O-P-P have responded recently to reports of people on the Bay of Quinte.
Chief John Whalen says the ice has to be thicker than it is now to be safe to go out on, with a minimum of ten centimetres needed to walk on it, and 12 centimetres required for a snowmobile or all terrain vehicle.
Whalen says anyone who has to be on the ice should wear a wetsuit and put a cellphone inside a plastic bag to keep it from getting wet in case it’s needed for an emergency.
Posted on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
An early Christmas present for a Picton woman. The woman, who cannot be identified, is the adoptive mother of a baby assaulted and injured back in 2005. She has won an appeal of the sentence given to 24 year old Darren Wadforth, which she called a “slap on the wrist”.
On March 19th, the Crown will appeal the 18 month conditional sentence given Wadforth. The child suffered multiple injuries from the assault, and was in it’s first month of life.
Posted on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
Environmental charges have been laid against Canada Talc mine of Madoc.
6 charges have been laid against the two parent companies and the former manager of the mine, Elvis Regular.
The charges by the Ministry of Environment involve improper sampling and providing false or misleading information. The incidents are alleged to have occurred between 2001 and 2006. The talc mine first started operation back in 1896. The matter goes to Belleville Provincial Offenses Court on February 24th.
Posted on Monday, December 22nd, 2008
A coroner is investigating the possibility a 16-year-old Picton boy died while deliberately choking himself to get a high.
Doctor Hans Westenberg of Kingston, says he has heard the family of Elijah Cole said he was involved in a choking game, in which participants get a rush of euphoria by starving the brain of oxygen.
Cole was rushed to hospital unconscious on November 26th, after being found at a home in Picton, but was taken off life support and declared dead on December eleventh.
Westenberg has asked the O-P-P to further investigate the boy’s death.
Posted on Monday, December 22nd, 2008
A man has been arrested in Trenton on a warrant for assault, assault with a weapon and mischief.
Quinte West O-P-P went to a home on Annwood Court last night, and picked up fifty-one-year-old Alan Summers of Trenton for alleged offences in October.
He has a bail hearing early this afternoon, and is also wanted by Durham Region Police, east of Toronto.
House Party at 6 A.M!
