In Rearview Mirror 2024 we are going to take a look at the year's top stories, culminating in a vote by readers for the BayToday "Top Story" of 2024 and "Newsmaker" of 2024.
To simplify things, our reporters have condensed the monthly top stories starting in January and running through to December.
January was an interesting start to the year with a classic example of wasting taxpayer dollars. Canadore president George Burton lodged a code of conduct complaint against North Bay City Councillor Sara Inch to be investigated by the Integrity Commissioner's office. It cost the City of North Bay taxpayers nearly $4,000, according to a staff report.
See: Burton vs Inch social media spat costs taxpayers $4K
Another story that garnered a lot of reader interest was a dog drowning in South River and the local fire chief's defence of not risking the safety of firefighters to rescue it.
South River Machar Fire Chief Risto Maki said it was too risky for rescuers to save a dog that had fallen through the ice on a river containing fast-moving currents.
Maki was responding to a South River couple's complaint that they had called for help on January 2 after their dog chased a bird onto the thin ice of the South River in Joly Township, and then couldn't climb back to safety.
See: 'Substantial risk of serious injury to our firefighters' in saving dog says South River Fire Chief
A third major story told the tale of the start of construction on a $650,000 fence to surround Chippewa Secondary.
Back in mid-November of 2023, the Near North District School Board announced a fence would be erected as a way to separate the city’s homeless and public drug users at the low-barrier homeless shelter from students located across the street.
See: Chippewa fence project already underway
Tomorrow we'll take a look at February.
