Kingston Pen Tours – Continuing

Tours of Kingston Penitentiary were so successful this year they’ll return next year and organizers hope to offer up to three times the number of tickets to tour the infamous prison.

Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson announced yesterday the city is continuing its partnership with the Correctional Service and St. Lawrence Parks Commission.

Tours this year attracted 60 thousand visitors and generated about $5 million for the regional economy.

They also raised $322,421 for youth programs supported by the United Way of Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington.

Stolen Statue

How low can thieves go?

A bronze sculpture of kids playing leapfrog that was donated to Hospice Kingston 20 years ago has been stolen.  The sculpture was a feature in the Hospice Kingston Garden of Memories in City Park.  It was taken sometime late Sunday or early Monday.  Anyone with tips on its whereabouts or whoever stole it is being asked to contact Kingston Police or Crime Stoppers.

Day of Remembrance

A vigil will be held in Kingston today to mark the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women and Girls.

The vigil at the HIV/AIDS Regional office on Princess Street near Regent Street starts at 4:30 this afternoon.  It will commemorate the 14 women murdered at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989.

It starts at 4:30 this afternoon.  There will be speakers, music, a candlelight vigil and rose ceremony to remember the 14 women who were murdered and other women who have been victims of violence.

Assault – Four Men

Kingston Police detectives are investigating the assault of a 12 year old girl on a trail that connects Hickson Avenue and Harvey Street.  The girl told police she noticed four men on the trail around 3pm last Thursday.  She told investigators one of the men chased and assaulted her.  He searched her backpack but didn’t take anything and was seen getting into a pickup truck with the three other men.  The older model green pickup was parked on the north side of Railway Street near the Coca-Cola plant and was last seen heading east on Railway Street.  Anyone with information about the incident is being asked to contact Kingston Police or Crime Stoppers.

Hotel Dieu – Urgent Care

Hotel Dieu Hospital says its Urgent Care Centre is open despite the fact its main entrance has been blocked off with tape as it undergoes renovations.  There is a temporary entrance just a few steps away from the usual entrance.  Officials say signs have been posted with directions to the temporary entrance but people have been calling the switchboard with concerns the centre is closed.

John Counter – Railway Bridge

Work is continuing on the widening John Counter Boulevard to prepare for the installation of a bridge over the CN Rail tracks.  The city says it will be drilling boreholes to collect soil samples this week.  The samples are needed to prepare for phase 4 of the project in the spring…the actual widening of the road.  The current work involves building the embankment for the bridge with hundreds of loads of rock fill.  Each level of fill has to settle for several months and equipment monitors that settlement.  Construction of the actual bridge is expected to take place in 2018-19.

Filed under: Assault, Bryan Paterson, Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women and Girls, Four Men, HIV/AIDS Regional Office, Hospice Kingston, Hotel Dieu, John Counter, Kingston Penitentiary Tours, Kingston Police, Princess Street, Railway Bridge, Stolen Statue, Urgent Care