Category: News 2018

Meet the Municipal Candidates

John Draper

The Northumberland Central Chamber of Commerce has picked up the ball and will be holding an all-candidate meeting at the Best Western on October 10.  The format will be similar to the one used in 2014 and once again will be called Speed Campaigning (see photo below of Larry Sherwin’s table in 2014).  The idea is that all candidates (including for English Public School Board Trustee) will sit at tables and citizens will have five minutes to ask them direct questions before the candidate rotates to another table.  With 9 candidates for Council, 2 for deputy Mayor and 4 for English Public School Board Trustee, that means at least 15 tables.  Attendance is limited to 125 people and they want… Read complete articleMeet the Municipal Candidates

Tourism Survey

John Draper

As part of the Experience Cobourg (Tourism marketing) initiative, summer students were hired and were called “Experience Ambassadors”. Those stationed in the Victoria Hall Lobby (photo below) and in the kiosk at the beach took surveys of visitors and, at the last Council meeting, Councillor Suzanne Séguin provided the survey results for the period June 11 to August 5. It’s surprising that the biggest number of visitors to the kiosks occurred for the weekend of the Sandcastle competition – the Waterfront Festival had about half their number. Maybe fewer visitors to the Waterfront Festival visited the Tourism booths? Some of the data indicated how long people stayed and how much they spent. Also included was data on how they got… Read complete articleTourism Survey

Waterfront “Guide” Mailed to all Cobourg Households

John Draper

This week, Canada Post is delivering a brochure from the Town to all 8664 households in Cobourg.  The idea is to educate the public on the merits of the recent waterfront study and of the financial viability of the harbour and marina.  This could be called a new level of transparency but it’s also selling the results of the study.  Some of the issues described are not particularly contentious (e.g. about the East Pier) while others are likely to be election issues (e.g. harbour expansion).  There are in fact two “Guides” available – the four page version that was mailed and the 16 page version available on line.  Both have much the same information but the larger one has more… Read complete articleWaterfront “Guide” Mailed to all Cobourg Households

More CIP Grants and Loans Approved by Council

John Draper

Surveys conducted as part of the Downtown Vitalization Study showed that citizens were critical of the state of repair and appearance of many Downtown buildings.  This is also no doubt one of the reasons that many of the apartments above stores remain unoccupied. To help address these issues, Council tonight approved the spending of $136,822 of the 2018 budget of $150,000 on Community Improvement Plan (C.I.P.) grants.  There were seven applications in the 2018 intake – of these, 6 were approved and one deferred pending completion of outstanding work.  Several of the applications indicated that they plan to make apartments available on the second and third floors of their properties.  Critics of Cobourg’s Downtown have said that the addition of… Read complete articleMore CIP Grants and Loans Approved by Council

All Candidates’ Debate cancelled

John Draper

Up until now, there had been only one All-Candidates meeting/debate scheduled and that was by a joint effort of the CTA and Northumberland 89.7 on October 10 – but now it has been cancelled.  The radio station issued a statement that there was a disagreement on format but the CTA (Cobourg Taxpayers Association) said that the problem was that some Candidates did not want to participate if it was organized by the CTA.  It seems that the venue has been reserved and paid for and it is hoped that another organization will take over and hold the much needed forum for Candidates to air their platforms. Although the Mayor has been acclaimed, there are still important contests for Deputy Mayor… Read complete articleAll Candidates’ Debate cancelled

Criterium Racing in Cobourg – 11 August 2018

John Draper

The weather was perfect for the first Criterium Gran Prix to be held in Cobourg.  Most races were 40km around the 1.2km course so there were 33 laps.  Each race took around an hour so the bicycles were doing an average of 40km/hr so as well as speed and skill in cornering, endurance was also tested.  Most races had contestants in several categories – for example, the first race had two categories: Elite (Senior) 4 Men and Master 3 Men (the number indicates skill level with 1 being highest). There were few spectators for the first race but there were more at later ones.  I saw only one spill (see photo below) but no injuries.  Although residents on Albert were… Read complete articleCriterium Racing in Cobourg – 11 August 2018

Anti-Poverty Rally

John Draper

Deborah O’Connor of the Northumberland Coalition Against Poverty organized a rally outside the office of MP David Piccini today to protest changes by the Doug Ford government.  The newly elected Provincial government recently announced that after 100 days of consultation, it will come up with a strategy to break the cycle of poverty and get people working.  A first step is that the Wynn government’s plan to increase social assistance rates by 3% in September will be cut to 1.5%  and the 4000 participants on the basic income pilot project will revert to the same welfare arrangements as everyone else.  But Deborah supports the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty which says that even the 3% was “woefully inadequate” and below the… Read complete articleAnti-Poverty Rally

Criterium Race Downtown on Saturday

John Draper

The Gran Prix Bicycle race is a first for Cobourg and is billed as “one of the most exciting spectator events this town has ever seen.”  Organizers have worked hard to ensure that all the details are covered, and risks are minimized, especially due to the road closures.  The 1.2 km race course (see map below) is East on King St. to Third, South on Third to Albert, West on Albert to Bagot, North on Bagot to King and East on King to the start/finish line. Each race involves a minimum of 33 laps at high speed.  Residents living on the course would be wise to move their cars south of Albert to facilitate access to the town throughout the… Read complete articleCriterium Race Downtown on Saturday