It was a busy year for the town of Fort Frances.

A new splash park was officially opened.

Major renovations were completed at the Memorial Sports Centre, and an expansion of the Sister Kennedy Centre was celebrated.

The town also saw several new employees at the Civic Centre.

Mayor Andrew Hallikas says like other businesses and industries in the region, it was difficult to keep employees and hire their replacements.

“But we are very pleased that we were able to hire a new CAO in the past year, new Deputy Clerk, Communications Officer. We hired a new HR manager, and we hired a new museum coordinator. All crucial positions for our operations,” says Hallikas.

Hallikas credits staff for their work in helping the town get through 2024.

He notes several difficult situations cropped up, but staff were able to address them and keep services operating efficiently.

Hallikas says it is also being done as the town and its residents navigate through difficult financial circumstances.

The town was the recipient of almost $11 million in grants from the provincial and federal governments.

Seven million went to specific capital projects, such as plans to restore Russell Hall at Sunny Cove Camp and the relocation of the Hallett and Owandum to the waterfront.

Hallikas says some of the projects may not have been realized without government support.

“Wherever possible, administration is seeking to save money. They do some very careful planning and our employees are working very hard on all of the projects that we do,” says Hallikas.

“We’ve been working really hard to try and maximize the amount of government funding we get. We apply for grants for almost everything. We don’t necessarily get approved for everything, but we keep applying and applying. And as I mentioned, we got millions of dollars in capital grants, which allows us to do projects, big projects that we would never be able to do on the property tax.”

Other highlights for Hallikas in 2024 included staff at the Fort Frances Power Corporation reaching 250,000 hours without a lost time injury or accident, the creation of a Clean the Fort campaign and the development of new policies and procedures aimed at making local government run more efficiently.