Author: John Draper

Town Asks for Budget Input

John Draper

With a goal of ultimately approving a budget before the start of the budget year, the first step is to ask citizens what they want. At the recent Council meeting, a timetable was approved (full details in special Cobourg internet page – see Resources below) and today (August 1), the first item has been implemented – an online survey. The survey starts by asking demographic information (how long have you lived in Cobourg, age, income, etc.) then moves to the importance of various issues. But we are told that if current services are maintained, the budget must go up by the amount of inflation (3%) or services must be cut. So the next set of questions asks which services should… Read complete articleTown Asks for Budget Input

Council decides on 310 Division Street and more

John Draper

At their “Special Council meeting” today (31 July), Council had a long closed session with an undisclosed agenda (105 minutes) then approved six items including how to manage the relocated Transition House at 310 Division Street. The first five items were not controversial (details below) and even the subject of the “management of 310 Division Street” was quickly dealt with. There were no dissenting votes on any item although Councillor Adam Bureau was not at the meeting. The meeting was chaired by Mayor Lucas Cleveland and I think it’s fair to say that he showed leadership – and his final votes were the same as the rest of Council. I thought it interesting that at no time was there any… Read complete articleCouncil decides on 310 Division Street and more

County Communications Master Plan

John Draper

The decline of printed local newspapers does not mean that there is a decline in the public interest in what Governments are doing.  Recognizing this, in 2023, Northumberland County hired Redbrick Communications to produce a “Communications Master Plan”.  This will be presented to the Corporate Support Standing Committee meeting on July 30 for approval at the August 14, 2024 County Council meeting.  The County already makes a significant effort to communicate with the public with a communications team of five employees: a Director (Communications and IT); Manager, Communications & Creative Services; Communications Officer, Capital Projects; Grant Writer; and Specialist, Digital & Document Accessibility.  Although not strongly spelled out, Redbrick rate the current performance highly although they do list improvements that… Read complete articleCounty Communications Master Plan

Transition House Licensed

John Draper

In February of this year, Council passed a By-Law which required Emergency Care establishments like Transition House to be licensed.  This applies to both the current Transition house on Chapel Street and their new location at 310 Division Street.  Without any public announcement, the Town’s web site indicates that Transition House is now licensed.  The licence is for one year: valid from July 17, 2024 to July 17, 2025.  Presumably when Transition House moves in September, the licence will transfer to that location.  The licence requirements are quite stringent but do not cover costs to the Town – Transition House serves the entire county but is located in Cobourg. Summarized below are some of the requirements which Transition House must… Read complete articleTransition House Licensed

Police Board meeting – 16 July 2024

John Draper

In the first Police Board meeting streamed from the Council Chambers on July 16, we learned several things: there is now a “Citizen’s advisory committee” (but no details); all crime stats in 2023 increased although the solved rate seems good; the encampment cost about $61K in 2023 – a full report on this was provided; there are gaps in the Downtown Dynamic Patrol due to resources being diverted to the encampment; Police won’t normally enter the encampment unless accompanied by other agencies; the case for a new building was not discussed; Police made their largest-ever single drug-related seizure; Of the $10.8M budget, $2M came from the business centre (plus all Capital was funded from business centre profits); the idea of… Read complete articlePolice Board meeting – 16 July 2024

Contract Extended for Police Chief Paul VandeGraaf

John Draper

Today the Cobourg Police Board announced that the contract for Police Chief Paul VandeGraaf has been extended to 2029 – that’s 5 more years. The exact date in 2029 was not announced nor were any terms in the contract announced. But the Chief was praised for his work to date – he was promoted from Deputy Chief on August 15, 2019 so presumably his contract is dated August 15. Specific accomplishments quoted included tiered policing, mental health response, and technology adoption as well as “he fostered strong partnerships with community organizations, local businesses, and other law enforcement agencies”.   Current challenges cited were “homelessness, addictions, and mental health crises in our community”. Paul said that in his new term he will… Read complete articleContract Extended for Police Chief Paul VandeGraaf

Slow Summer News

John Draper

With Council taking a summer break, there’s little Council news and not much other news happening in Cobourg. There are a few events: Police continue to catch some bad guys and report on that, the Town has now hired a replacement Director of Planning, Lakefront Utilities has acknowledged that there are too many outages – they say they are working to fix that – but there’s no news (yet) on Brookside and there’s no news on clearing out the illegal encampment. For more details on what news IS available, see Resources below for links. Fortunately, and unlike other media, I don’t rely on news happening to make a living!   But I am still here and if there is any significant… Read complete articleSlow Summer News

Pilot of Bus connection to Go station to end

John Draper

For about 20 years, residents of Cobourg and nearby have been asking for a Go Bus service to Toronto.  In 2020, Northumberland County decided to advocate for this and hired AECOM to carry out a business case study. At the time, MPP David Piccini lobbied Metrolinx but they said “that given the length of the route and the relatively low densities, none of the options perform well from a Revenue/Cost ratio stand point. They are modelling around 20% revenue coverage of costs, which puts these options in the lowest performing GO bus route revenue categories.” Then in April 2022 the Province and County announced a trial service – the Durham line – connecting Cobourg and Port Hope to Oshawa Go… Read complete articlePilot of Bus connection to Go station to end