Author: John Draper

Transition to All Electric Vehicles

John Draper

On 12 October 2021, Council approved the formation of an Ad Hoc Committee to look at how the Town could transition to zero emission vehicles.  It would be a sub-committee of the Transportation Advisory Committee. It took until 16 May 2022 for the terms of reference to be approved and then the committee presented their report to Council on 3 October 2022. Chair Randy Curtis presented a summary of the 50 page report including recommendations.  The committee looked at hybrids, hydrogen powered and battery electric vehicles (BEV) and decided on BEVs. The committee’s decision was based on cost and lifetime greenhouse gas emissions. The report also addresses many of the concerns about BEVs such as recycling batteries, resource limitations and impact on the… Read complete articleTransition to All Electric Vehicles

Interviews with Candidates for Mayor and Deputy Mayor

John Draper

The regular Council meeting on October 3 will be the last for the current council and the last currently scheduled for this year so there will be little news from meetings for a while.  But of course the upcoming Municipal election is news and, as well as this News Blog, other local media have been providing good coverage.  One often overlooked source of news is Your TV, the Cogeco local channel (700 HD).  Not everyone has Cogeco TV or thinks to look online, but Cogeco does a great job producing news videos and as well as showing them on TV, they are also available on the Internet.  Host Mark Johnston has interviewed candidates for Mayor and Deputy Mayor for Port… Read complete articleInterviews with Candidates for Mayor and Deputy Mayor

Affordable Housing Promises by Candidates for Mayor

John Draper

One of the issues in this election is what to do about affordable housing.  County Council is responsible for providing affordable housing and Mayors from each municipality are County Councillors so it seems that the affordable housing promises by candidates for Mayor are relevant. Since this is a blog, it’s web based so a review of online statements seems appropriate.  Cobourg’s Candidates for Mayor are incumbent John Henderson and local businessman Lucas Cleveland so I have extracted their positions on this issue from their Web sites and where available, other Social Media.  I emailed both candidates offering to publish their response but I have received no response. Note that affordable housing is a very separate issue from Homelessness although it’s… Read complete articleAffordable Housing Promises by Candidates for Mayor

Town has Purchased Surplus School Land

John Draper

When the two high Schools in Cobourg amalgamated, the land for a playing field in the West End of Town was no longer being used. (See below for more detail on location). It was therefore likely that the School Board would eventually sell the land but there is a process that they must follow that means that 15 or more entities – including the Town of Cobourg – must be notified first. They did that in 2021 (see the Timeline below) although prior to that they formalized the right-of-way provided for the Boardwalk. Negotiations between the Town (Council) and School board were held in closed session to ensure confidential negotiations.  On September 20, 2022, the School board accepted the Town’s… Read complete articleTown has Purchased Surplus School Land

News and Decisions coming to Council

John Draper

As previously reported, the CoW Council meeting on Monday 26 will have a long Agenda.  This is the fourth article (post) on this meeting – see Resources below for a list of earlier articles. Apart from the five items which are already the subject of my reports, I count four more items of interest coming before Council as well as a number of routine items (mostly Heritage Permits but also some new policies).  1) Keith Hearst, recently hired Grant and Policy Writer, provides a report on applications made and approved in 2022; 2) If approved, the development at the corner of Albert and Division will proceed – but it’s controversial;  3) A use has been chosen for the empty Memorial… Read complete articleNews and Decisions coming to Council

End of Year Staff Reports – Part 3

John Draper

At the year’s final Committee of the Whole (CoW) meeting next Monday (26 Sept), Council will be asked to approve an usually large number of items.  Previously posted were highlights plus a report on the Harbour repairs but there are more items.  Staff reported on progress with three reports: The Service Delivery Report; the 2022 Organizational Review and the Strategic Plan.  In addition there are four policy reviews and a report on the Town’s grant applications.  The Agenda also includes a number of other items that need to be made public plus the usual Heritage Permits and other less significant, but still important, matters. (Watch for a report on these in Part 4 – yes, there are a lot of… Read complete articleEnd of Year Staff Reports – Part 3

Harbour Repair Cost Problem

John Draper

As we heard over the last couple of years, Cobourg’s Harbour is in urgent need of repair – that is, the harbour walls and the breakwaters need a whole lot of work.  A consultant has done the design work and the estimated cost for Phase one of the work was put in the 2022 budget and tenders issued.  Specifically, Phase one was to rehabilitate the walls on the north and east side of the marina basin as well as the fuel dock. However, all 6 bids responding to the tender were well over the amount in the budget – the budget is $5M and the lowest bid was $7M so Staff are recommending that the tender be cancelled and that… Read complete articleHarbour Repair Cost Problem

End of Year Staff Reports

John Draper

At the Committee of the Whole (CoW) meeting on 26 September, three major reports on Staff actions will be presented as well as five reports on Policies and other actions.  Reports on these by Cobourg News blog will follow in the coming days but advance notice on some key items seems called for.  The reports are listed below and it must be said that it’s good that Staff, led by CAO Tracey Vaughan, are providing these updates to Council and the public. Some things that are happening and highlighted by these reports (notably the Service Delivery Report) are:  Reduced spending on Tourism, $1M per year increase in Parking Revenue, the new Asset Management plan and review which will point to… Read complete articleEnd of Year Staff Reports