Kingston News, April 18, 2018

Kingston – Branding

Kingston will be getting an update on its marketing with a new branding initiative.  Last night…Kingston City Council approved a budget of up to $125,000 to establish a community-wide brand for the city of Kingston.

The report presented to council last night says multiple stakeholders have already been discussing the idea.

A consultant will be hired to facilitate the process.  The report for city council says it will not replace current branding.

City Council – Library

The Library in Kingston east will stay where it is.

Kingston City Council has voted in favour of renovating and expanding the existing Pittsburgh branch of the library instead of moving it to the new Kingston East Community Centre.

Frulact – Co-founder Award

The CEO and Co-founder of Frulact has been selected as the Entrepreneur of the Year at an awards gala in Lisbon, Portugal.  Joao Miranda won the honour in the International Category.  The Portuguese based company received a total of $6 million in funding for its plant in Kingston from the Federal and Ontario governments on Friday of last week.  The Kingston facility is the company’s base for expansion throughout North America.

Fatal – Identification

Provincial police are still looking for the vehicle involved in a hit and run crash on the 401 that claimed the life of a man from Kingston.  The OPP says 59 year old Charles Thistlethwaite was seen walking on the westbound paved shoulder of the highway near Gardiners Road at approximately 12:30 a.m. on Friday.

Police were called to the scene around 1:00 a.m. and discovered his body on the shoulder of the highway.

There was no vehicle at the scene.  Anyone with information about the incident is being asked to contact the OPP or Crime Stoppers.

United Way – New Chair

The United Way of Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington has thanked volunteers who helped it exceed its campaign goal in 2017.  The successful campaign chaired by Pat Murphy raised $3.5 million.  Volunteers were honoured at a luncheon yesterday.  Fred Godbille was introduced as the 2018 campaign chair during the luncheon.  He’s the Director of the DuPont Kingston Technology Centre.

The 12-week campaign will kick off on Friday, September 7th.

Iris Monitor

If you’ve ever had a concussion or know someone who has – you know how debilitating it can be.

Two Queens University Grads have developed the world’s first computer monitor clinically proven to help concussion victims with symptoms like light sensitivity.

Iris Technologies is the company founded by Conor Ross and Colin Harding and they recently launched their flagship product…The Iris Monitor.

Pilot programs testing the device are already underway at the University of Toronto, several other educational institutions, an insurance company and the Ontario government.

OPP – PE Thanks Drivers

This is something completely different from the Prince Edward County OPP detachment.

It is thanking people in Prince Edward County for not getting involved in any crashes during the storm on the weekend.

A news release says the OPP responded to over a thousand collision across Ontario on the weekend but there were ZERO reported collisions in Prince Edward County.