Spanning the region for you

The past week-and-a-half has been a busy one for the staff at the Times and Record.
On election night last Monday (Jan. 23), Melanie Béchard and Heather Ogilvie were assigned the task of watching the evening unfold from the campaign rooms of the three main district candidates in Thunder Bay.
Part of the newspaper’s decision to be in Thunder Bay was that we knew it was going to be a very tight race. Polls in the riding showed the lead had moved back and forth between the Liberals and New Democrats.
We knew our readers would want to know how the election night transpired for the candidates as the votes came in and their reactions to the final results.
The initial story and pictures were e-mailed to the Times in time for Tuesday’s Daily Bulletin. Then, with only a few hours of sleep, Melanie and Heather were back in Fort Frances by noon to write more in-depth stories for the Times edition the following day.
The season is becoming busier for our reporters. This past weekend, four of the Times’ staff travelled to Edmonton for seminars on reporting, layout, design, photography, and other topics relevant to the newspaper industry.
Two were from our editorial department, one from production, and one from sales. That left a reduced reporting staff in the office for Friday and the weekend.
Meanwhile, Ken Johnston, editor of the Rainy River Record, spent all day Saturday at the Bergland Hall reporting on the Rainy River District Municipal Association’s annual meeting.
It generated more than 40 pages of notes for Ken that provided several stories in both newspapers this week.
Then on Sunday, Fort Frances welcomed curlers to the Ontario Scott Tournament of Hearts Ontario while the annual “Community Chest” dinner was held that evening at La Place Rendez-Vous.
Duane Hicks spent Sunday evening at the supper, where district residents once again opened their wallets to help friends facing emergency medical costs.
In addition, Duane headed across the river Tuesday morning to attend a meeting on follow-up developments regarding the sale of the international bridge here.
Our sports reporter, Jenni Condon, will find most of her time being taken up at the Fort Frances Curling Club this week as she follows who will win the provincial ladies’ curling crown.
Our staff is always on the run chasing stories, upgrading skills, and working to produce a better product for our readers and advertisers. Often that means working late into the night and nearly always interrupting their weekends to attend events.
We would like to say that our staff can cover everything, but we know that it is physically impossible. As such, we look to you to help us by submitting stories or photographs when we can’t be present.