Around the North

Dryden residents spent some anxious hours wondering if the community would be evacuated following a chlorine dioxide leak from Weyerhaeuser's pulp and paper mill on July 30.

A move by Hicks and Lawrence Ltd. to Dryden Regional Airport has the potential to generate over $1.15 million in economic benefits to Dryden and the air station, an official with the Dryden airport says.

A fledgling phone company is delivering cellular service to Wawa. Ideal Communications is distributing the service for Superior Wireless in the community on Lake Superior's eastern shore.

A resolution passed by Armour Township on Highway 11 to ban transport of toxic substances on provincial highways and rail lines failed to gain support from Haileybury and New Liskeard.

Extensive four-laning of the Trans-Canada Highway was not included in a $255-million provincial highway package announced in late July by the Ernie Eves government.

Four-laning the Trans-Canada Highway could be done with the help of the National Highway Foundation, and deliver a national economic boost just as the U.S. interstate highway system did, says Thunder Bay-Superior MP Joe Comuzzi.

Timmins police have ruled out foul play in their investigation of the July 17 death of a Boart Longyear employee at the Falconbridge Kidd Creek mine site.

The potential development of Ontario's first diamond mine was put on hold in July. In a surprise move, the Attawapiskat First Nations community told De Beers Canada Corp., it had decided to suspend its consultation process with De Beers.

Thunder Bay officials will head south in mid-August in an attempt to secure a conditional deal to bring a former Great Lakes passenger steamer to the North as a tourist attraction.

Thunder Bay's Lakehead University now offers its business leadership program to outlying communities through videoconferencing technology.