There remains more questions than answers, despite an Ontario Municipal Board pre-hearing Tuesday on a contentious speedway proposal that was supposed to determine when the actual hearing will begin.

Due to several conflicting schedules between the appellants, legal counsel and experts, a hearing date could not be agreed upon. A telephone conference will be held in February to hammer out a specific date.

The hearing is expected to last up to four weeks. It’s the result of opposition to the town’s and Niagara Region’s support for a Canadian Motor Speedway proposal.

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They made it!

The annual Sleep Cheap Charities Reap event raised $175,988 this year, which pushes their eight year history total over the $1-million mark.

Mayor Jim Diodati said when they started this event they had no idea that “it would just grow wings and take off like this. We are very proud of the fact that 100 % of the money goes directly to local Niagara charities.”

The event added a fifth night this year on Sunday, Nov. 13, and organizers were confident they would break the $1-million mark before it wrapped up on Nov. 17.

Twenty-seven hotels offered a record 7,800 room nights to only Niagara region residents as a way of letting them know what’s available and hopefully spreading the word when family and friends visit this area.

“This is one of the benefits we have of living in a tourist town for all the locals,” said Diodati.

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Ripley’s Believe It or Not! To Hold  

“Gimme Five” Food Drive to Fight Hunger in  

the Niagara Falls Area 

Donate 5 cans of food and get a ticket to Ripley’s Niagara Falls 

Odditorium for only $5 from November 6-10

Niagara Falls, Ont. (Oct. 7, 2011) - Ripley’s Believe It or Not! is launching an international campaign to combat hunger in cities across North America which host Believe It or Not! Odditoriums. The Ripley’s Gimme Five Food Drive will take place from Sunday, November 6 through Thursday, November 10 and will aim to collect non-perishable food items to assist struggling families through the holiday season.

Here’s how it works: guests who bring a donation of five non-perishable food items can get a ticket to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Niagara Falls Odditorium for just $5 (regular adult ticket price is $13.99). All the food collected will go to Project S.H.A.R.E. and be distributed to families throughout the Niagara Region.

“We’re in the business of ‘unbelievable’, and the number of families needing help putting food on the table is truly unbelievable,” said Jim Pattison Jr., President of Ripley Entertainment Inc. “That’s why we started this national effort to help food banks across the country.”

 Facts on hunger in Ontario: 

• More than 3,600 people receive emergency food from Project S.H.A.R.E. each month.
• Over 39% of people receiving food donations are under 16 years of age.
• Project S.H.A.R.E provides an average of 60,000 pounds of emergency food each month.

Suggested donations include juice, soup, beans, tuna, cereal, canned fruits and vegetables, peanut butter, pasta, tomato sauce and baby food.

Ripley’s Niagara Falls Odditorium is located at 4960 Clifton Hill. Hours are from 10:00 am to 11:00 pm Sunday through Thursday and 10:00 am to midnight Friday and Saturday.

Ripley’s “Gimme Five” promotion may not be combined with any other offers. One discount ticket available for every 5 non-perishable food items donated.

Media contacts:

Madalena Phillips
Marketing & Public Relations, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Niagara Falls
905-356-2238 office
647-231-3321 cell
mphillips@ripleys.com

Tim O’Brien
VP Communications
Ripley Entertainment
615-646-7465 – office
615-496-5949 – cell
Obrien@ripleys.com

Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium Niagara Falls

Located on Clifton Hill since 1963, the always growing Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Niagara Falls Odditorium (www.ripleysniagara.com) still holds on to the reputation as Niagara’s most-visited museum. Authentic shrunken heads, the world’s rarest egg and two-headed animals are only the beginning here. Housing an impressive collection of the odd, strange and unbelievable from around the world, the museum showcases over 700 mind boggling exhibits, oddities, curiosities and illusions throughout 20 extraordinarily themed galleries.

About Ripley Entertainment

Ripley Entertainment Inc. (www.ripleys.com), keepers of the venerable Ripley’s Believe It or Not! brand, is a global leader in location-based entertainment, entertaining more than 12 million annually at its 80-plus attractions in 11 countries. In addition to its 31 Believe It or Not!Odditoriums, the Orlando, Florida-based company has publishing, licensing and broadcast divisions, best-selling books and the popular syndicated cartoon strip, Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, that still runs daily in 42 countries. Ripley Entertainment is a Jim Pattison Company, the third-largest privately held company in Canada.

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Fancy being in a music video? Then the Niagara Social Project wants to hear from you.

Better yet, the group wants to meet you in front of Planet Hollywood in Niagara Falls on Oct. 27 as a part of a flash mob that will be a part of a music video touting the virtues of the Niagara Region. The Niagara Social Project (NSP) is a community music video and social media campaign “developed to build global awareness of the Niagara region as a perfect location to live, work and play,” the group said in a news release.

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Admission to a Niagara Falls attraction on Clifton Hill for just five bucks? Believe it — or not!

There’s a catch, however, but that OK. It’s all for a good cause.

Ripley’s Believe it of Not! Odditorium on Clifton Hill is staging what the museum calls its Gimmie Five Food Drive to fight hunger. For a donation of five nonperishable food items, admission to the Odditorium will be reduced to $5 from the standard $13.99 entry fee. All the food collected will go to Project SHARE and be distributed to families throughout the Niagara Region.
The special admission runs from Nov. 6 to 10.

“We’re in the business of ‘unbelievable’, and the number of families needing help putting food on the table is truly unbelievable,” said Jim Pattison Jr., President of Ripley Entertainment Inc. “That’s why we started this national effort to help food banks across the country.”

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In Jim Diodati’s eyes, Niagara Falls is a piece of bait.

He says the city, with its beautiful natural wonder and tourist appeal, is what draws people to the Niagara region to visit. The plan, he added, is to use that bait to hook visitors and get them to explore more of what Niagara has to offer.

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Fame can be a real pain. Take Niagara Falls, for instance. The stuff of legend. Even if you’ve never set foot on the Rainbow Bridge and gazed down on the majesty with your own eyes, you’ve probably got an opinion about the place. You probably think you know it. The tourist traps, the heart-shaped Jacuzzi tubs, a place trading on the faded glory of a time when people couldn’t get further away from home, faster.

Never mind, of course, that we are talking about one of the most impressive natural wonders of the West. Never mind that the falls themselves are merely the famous cherry sitting atop the tasty, tasty sundae that is the Niagara region.

Never mind that this region is one of the most desirable destinations in the Northeast. Really, it is: Sitting between two Great Lakes (Ontario and Erie), the Niagara boasts not one, but two great wine-producing regions (one among Canada’s best; the other a hidden New York State gem), world-class theater and music for months out of the year, plus outstanding little towns like Niagara-on-the-Lake, Lewiston, Youngstown, Queenston, with their great restaurants and cool places to stay.

Even still, to many people, the entire region remains some sort of retro-kitsch joke. Ha ha ha. Niagara Falls.

One one hand, that’s insane. On the other, who cares? Maybe it’s good that too many people’s minds won’t be changed. More room for the rest of us.

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The Ontario government doesn’t want the same municipal politicians — including Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin and Niagara Falls Coun. Vince Kerrio — reappointed to the Niagara Parks Commission board.

The Niagara Falls Review learned through sources the Ministry of Tourism is looking to follow up its purge of four provincially appointed commissioners by asking Niagara Region, Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake to appoint different members to the board than during the last term of council.

A spokesman for Ontario Tourism Minister Michael Chan confirmed the province doesn’t want familiar faces returning after the four municipalities swear in their councillors this month.

“We are encouraging the municipalities to put forward new names for these appointments,” Mukunthan Paramalingham, the tourism minister’s senior communications adviser, said in an email response to questions posed by The Review. “Our goal is to establish a strong board with members who will bring forth new ideas and qualifications to move the commission forward.”

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The weekend GO trains which ran into St. Catharines and Niagara Falls during the past two summers will become a regular occurance.

Earlier this month, GO Transit announced the summer service, which saw four trains a weekend coming to the region from Toronto, will become a part of its regular network.

This means the trains will once again begin arriving next May.

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