Spending Affordable Housing CIP Budget

In 2020, Council approved a Community Improvement Plan (CIP) to provide a means for Council to fund subsidies to Affordable Housing.  At the Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting  next Monday, Director of Planning and Development Glenn McGlashon will present his plan to implement this.  Glenn proposes that there would be a well publicised call for applications which would then be reviewed by a new Ad Hoc Committee.  The intent is to allocate the $162,195.50 remaining from the $250K budget – already $35,287 has been committed to Trinity Housing and $52,517.50 has been allocated to Northumberland County Housing.  Glenn proposes a single intake starting in July with a final Council Decision by 1 November 2021.  Work on projects must start… Read complete articleSpending Affordable Housing CIP Budget

Public Consultations on Accessibility

In the second half of 2020, one of the things that Council did was to focus on Accessibility with several actions including hiring an Accessibility Coordinator (Jamie Kramer) on a full-time contract.  Jamie’s goal is to create the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion strategy for the Town of Cobourg.  So far she has helped setup an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee and secured a Provincial Grant of $60K to help with her work.  And it’s not just disabled people that are being “included”; the list is long: Black, Indigenous and People of Colour, women, people with disabilities, newcomers to Canada, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Two-Spirit, Intersex, and Asexual peoples, as well as those who identify as pansexual, questioning,… Read complete articlePublic Consultations on Accessibility

Fish Cleaning Changes proposed

In September 2019, citizens made complaints to Council about the Marina.  There were two main concerns: (1) electric power was cut off when water levels were high (as they were in 2017 and 2019) and (2) concerns about visitors abusing fishing privileges – notably to do with the fish cleaning table (see photo below).  The Town was quick to upgrade the Electrical system – that’s now fixed.  And now at the Committee of the Whole Meeting on 21 June, Town staff are recommending removing the fish cleaning table altogether and banning the cleaning of fish on municipal property.  A survey was conducted of other municipalities and it seems others have had the same problem and now ban fish cleaning.  You… Read complete articleFish Cleaning Changes proposed

Marina Parking Lot Upgraded

On May 10, Council approved repaving and modifying the Marina Parking lot and today the Town announced it would open tomorrow, Friday June 11. So on this glorious June day, I thought I would take a look and see if it was ready.  But by mid afternoon – not quite.   The Parking lot was pot-holed and badly needed re-paving.  That’s been done.  In addition the traffic flow needed re-arranging “to improve vehicular traffic in the area” and to allow easy separation of pedestrians who walk along the South edge – see the diagram below.  On Thursday afternoon a “steam-roller” (do they still call them that?) was still working to finish the asphalt – I can’t see it being ready to… Read complete articleMarina Parking Lot Upgraded

Renaming Langevin Pier

In September 2017, Meghan Sheffield and Nicole Beatty (as a citizen) plus Chief Jim Bob Marsden, then Chief of Alderville First Nation, made a delegation to Council to change the official name of the West headland from Langevin Pier to something that does not recall Langevin’s role as a “chief architect of Canada’s residential school system.” (Wally Keeler then suggested that the “pier” be renamed after Susanna Moodie).  The recent discovery of 215 graves has given a renewed impetus to renaming so at Monday’s regular Council meeting, Meghan Sheffield once again asked Council to look at renaming and once again asked that this be done in “partnership and consultation with the local indigenous community”.  After the original delegation, Council referred… Read complete articleRenaming Langevin Pier

Jeff Kawzenuk wins Liberal Nomination

In April, Nicole Beatty and Jeff Kawzenuk entered a competition to be nominated as Liberal Candidate for the 2022 Provincial election.  If nominated, and if she won against MPP David Piccini, Nicole would then not be running for Council in the 2022 Municipal Elections.  However, Liberal Party members in the Riding (Northumberland Peterborough-South) voted for Jeff Kawzenuk with an announcement yesterday – June 5.  Jeff retired in July 2020 from a 35 year career as teacher and principal in several Northumberland High Schools.  Both Nicole and Jeff campaigned online (see links below) and it did not seem to impact Nicole’s Council work.  With the announcement of the vote result, Nicole offers congratulations to Jeff on her Facebook page.  She continues… Read complete articleJeff Kawzenuk wins Liberal Nomination

Early summer in Cobourg

The forecast for Cobourg for today – Saturday June 5 – was a high of 29 although if you looked closer, it said “cooler by the Lake”.  With the forecasted warm weather, one would expect a whole lot of people wanting to come to the beach – except that it’s closed on weekends. But the temperature at the beach at around noon, was nowhere near 29 – more like 16.  A couple of blocks north on King Street it was probably 20.  The Beach is closed to keep large crowds from gathering and creating a virus spreading event.  So far, there are no large crowds.  Despite the closure, a number of young families did come anyway – one family told… Read complete articleEarly summer in Cobourg

Beach Now Open – Report on Second Day

Victoria Beach opened on May 31 and on June 1, it could be called an early  summer day with bright sunshine and temperatures around 20 C.  When I visited at around 3:00 pm, there were about 50 people on the beach – nowhere near the 1200 capacity.  I could not spot any enforcement people but then none were needed.  As a result, there were no staff or Police at the entrance or exits. Presumably they would be there if there were crowds and when the Beach is closed.  I didn’t see anyone swimming and everyone was keeping separated.  But it was a good day to just relax and enjoy the beach.  Signage was good (see photos) – they warned of… Read complete articleBeach Now Open – Report on Second Day