NewsNow Podcast

The new Lincoln Museum & Cultural Centre building in Jordan is finally completed and open to the public. Residents can explore the state of the art facility and its tremendous collection, as well as once again visit the Jordan Schoolhouse and the Fry Family House. Lincoln exhibitions and collections curator Jasmine Proteau came on the podcast this episode to recount the saga of building the museum...

Comedy is coming to Grimsby! The DIA has teamed up with Garden City comic David Green to put on a series of weekly, outdoor comedy shows in Coronation Park. Anyone looking for a good laugh can come down to the park on Wednesdays from 7 to 8 p.m. Bring your own chair, of course! These shows feature a line-up of veteran stand-up comedians who have been featured on shows like Just for Laughs, the Deb...

As the province gears up to re-open so too is the Nelles Manor Museum. Plans are already underway for the Museum to offer tours starting July 31 and special events starting in August. In this episode, Mike invites on Linda and Barry Coutts, the owners and custodians of the heritage museum house to give some previews of the upcoming re-opening. To read more about Nelles Manor and its past special e...

Following an announcement that the Province will make a $16 million grant to Grimsby for an expansion to the Peach Kings Centre,  Minister of Infrastructure Kinga Surma and Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff joined Mike in the NewsNow office to discuss what the new grant means for Niagara West. During the conversation, Mike and his guests also touch on the news that the WLMH pre-construction process...

Today, Canada Day 2021, also marks the release of NewsNow's special edition One Team, One Dream magazine. The publication is a 64-page volume that celebrates the history of the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital- and the hope for its future. To further the Hospital theme, Mike invited on Dr. Gary Benson. The retired doctor has been with WLMH for much of the institution's history and he shared this uni...

Big Brothers Big Sisters of North and West Niagara is on the hunt for mentors. The organization have a number of boys signed up who have yet to match with a Big and its looking to equalize the situation. In this episode, Mike chats with BBBS Marketing & Communications officer Nicole Boccia about how her organizations is reaching out to potential male mentors through the '30 Guys in 30 Days' campai...

Summer is upon us, and with it will come Recreational Programming in each of West Niagara's municipalities. In this episode, Mike invites on Grimsby Supervisor of Recreation, Trevor Ruzylo to give a preview on all the family-friendly Summer activities his department has planned. They also discuss how the Provincial Government's plan to re-open the province may or may not shape future programming....

Ontario will soon begin the slow process of exiting its third COVID lockdown. With retail and other workplaces resuming operations, so too will they need to expand their workforces. Gary Bruce, executive director of Niagara West's Employment Help Centres, is in a unique postion to share data on what kinds of businesses are looking to hire what kinds of employees. In this episode, Gary discusses th...

For more than a year, businesses in Grimsby and beyond have been languishing under COVID lockdown after COVID lockdown. However, despite these hardships, the merchants of Downtown Grimsby have proven to be resilient and the Downtown Improvement Area is still seeing growth in terms of new businesses. In this episode, Mike is joined by fellow Grimsby DIA board member Bryan Macaulay, the owner and ph...

West Lincoln Mayor Dave Bylsma has recently come under fire for comments he made in a social media conversation which prompted official apologies statments and censuring from the Township and Niagara Regional Councils. However, this is the latest in a series of controversies Bylsma has faced. In this episode, Mike discusses and debates with the Mayor on the context, the justifications and even the...

This week's guest is a man who wants to hear Downtown Grimsby come alive with the sound of music. Harley Valentine is a Grimsby-born artist, real estate investor and philanthropist who has teamed up with the Grimsby Music Studio to run a live music concert series this Summer. He chats with Mike about this concert series and the new stage venue that's gone up to  accompany it, as well as the import...

Last month, Sophie Krouse undertook a one-person protest to shed light on the massive investments banks like RBC have poured into the fossil fuel industry. This protest was cut short when several police officers showed up to where she was protesting in front of the Grimsby RBC branch. After threatening Sophie with a Mischief charge for writing chalk messages on public property, the cops ordered th...

It's a double feature of Mikes this episode! This time, your host sits opposite to Mike Kirkopoulos, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for the Town of Lincoln.   Together, they talk all things Lincoln, Ontario including: new public works projects, economic recovery during the pandemic and the Town's new tourism department among many other topics. This episode is a must-view for any Lincoln reside...

On this episode, Mike sits down with lifelong Grimsby Kinsman and community pillar Bruce Bond to talk about the importance of volunteers for the health of any community. Bond recounts how he first got started as a volunteer with the Grimsby Kinsmen Club and share the many experiences he's had with that and other groups. He and Mike also chat about the decline of volunteerism and why it's important...

This week Mike welcomes Mark Kossek, a Grimsby resident so frustrated with the state of Grimsby Council that he started a petition asking the Province to intervene. Kossek's petition clicked past the 1000 signatures mark in barely a week, and on this episode he describes his pleasant surprise with the attention it has received so far. He and Mike also touch on the importance of municipal politics...

Tune in and listen as Mike sits down with HHS director or redevelopment Bart DeVries to discuss the new designs and artistic renderings for the future West Lincoln Memorial Hospital. This week's episode focuses on the first, concrete images of what the new hospital will look like and touches on the long road from the earliest 'Save the Hospital' rallies to this moment. For more information on this...