Category: News 2018

Surprise addition at All-Candidates Meeting

John Draper

Local radio station Northumberland FM 89.7 organized an All Candidates meeting in Port Hope tonight.  There were five candidates scheduled to debate with the Libertarian Candidate opting not to campaign, but five minutes before the meeting started, a seventh candidate showed up and asked to participate.  Paul Cragg is a retired Medical Doctor and will be on the local ballot as the “Stop Climate Change party” candidate (more below).  The meeting was well organized and as you’d expect from a radio station, had excellent sound.  Retired lawyer John Hill was the moderator and asked questions provided by listeners to the station. Seventeen questions were asked with little overlap and included the hot issues of Hydro costs, the Green Energy Act,… Read complete articleSurprise addition at All-Candidates Meeting

CTA Open House

John Draper

The Cobourg Taxpayers Association had their Open House this afternoon in the Trinity United Church hall.  It was well attended with most if not all councillors in attendance as well as a couple of Candidates for Council and a good number of citizens  The CTA asked everyone to use green or red dots to agree (or not) with several hot questions.  The only one where Council seemed to agree with the CTA was on the subject of Council Pay which was partially resolved on Monday when Council reversed course and gave Councillors a significant raise.  Paul Pagnuelo of the CTA made the case for an increase at a delegation to Council and when Councillor Debra McCarthy made the case for… Read complete articleCTA Open House

Surprise Approval of Larger Council Salary Increase

John Draper

At the May 14 Committee of the Whole (C.O.W.) meeting, Council approved the recommendations of the Ad Hoc committee that had been formed for that purpose.  At the same meeting, Paul Pagnuelo of the CTA said that councillors were grossly underpaid and should be paid a lot more.  In keeping with that, a clause was added to the Council motion that required a review in twelve months.  But when the motion came up for the usual rubber stamping at tonight’s Council meeting, Debra McCarthy said that she had second thoughts:  Why not approve a quarter of the increase immediately?  Specifically she moved an amendment that would increase Councillors’ and the Deputy Mayor’s pay by $5000 and the Mayor’s by $2500… Read complete articleSurprise Approval of Larger Council Salary Increase

Strategic Plan 2015-18 – CAO Report

John Draper

In late 2014, shortly after the election of the new council, Council organized a public Strategic planning session to decide what should be done during their mandate. As that 2015 to 2018 term comes to a close, CAO Stephen Peacock has written a report on progress as of the end of 2017 and he presented it to Council at their C.O.W. meeting on March 14.  Most objectives have either been met or are well under way to completion. Stephen gave some details and labelled actions as “Completed”, “Underway” or “Outstanding”. Some of the actions planned for this term are now promised for the next although some will be completed during 2018 – notably the report on the Waterfront.  He promised it… Read complete articleStrategic Plan 2015-18 – CAO Report

William Academy Opening this Fall

John Draper

When CDCI West closed, the building was put up for sale and it was bought by Jeff Weng who operates William Academy in Scarborough and will open a second Campus in this building in September.  He plans to have 50 students to start – 30 international and 20 local.  To encourage local students, he is offering 20 scholarships which will cover students as long as they stay at the school.  To start it will be primarily grades 11 & 12 but will accept from grades 9 to 12. The idea is that both international and local students will benefit from mixing with each other.  Jeff already operates the successful Scarborough campus but both he and the students like Cobourg so… Read complete articleWilliam Academy Opening this Fall

Venture 13 Grand Opening

John Draper

The new centre for innovation and technology entrepreneurs had its grand opening on Thursday.  All councillors were there with Mayor Brocanier acting as MC.  MP Kim Rudd, MPP Lou Rinaldi, Police Chief Kai Liu were there as well as project prime movers CFDC executive director Wendy Curtis and CAO Stephen Peacock.  The idea for the project was first aired at Council in May 2017 but funding from the Federal Government and Fleming College helped get the project going with tenders let in December 2017.  The second floor will be occupied by the Cobourg Police Business Services unit that is planning to expand and will fully fund their portion.  The speeches were kicked off by a video from Hon Navdeep Bains,… Read complete articleVenture 13 Grand Opening

First look at Waterfront Study Report

John Draper

A draft copy of the long-awaited waterfront study is now available on the Town’s web site (see link below).  It was presented to the Parks and Recreation Committee on Wednesday, 16 May and will be a draft until accepted by Council (expected June 4) but no significant changes are expected.  It’s a very large document in two parts with 410 pages.  It recommends spending an estimated $27M over 24 years.  There are 83 “initiatives” grouped into 24 projects – these cover everything from the Harbour to Victoria Park to Parking.  The controversial subjects of the Trailer Park, Marina expansion and East Pier enhancements are NOT avoided and are included in recommended actions. This is a major project for Director Dean… Read complete articleFirst look at Waterfront Study Report

Update on Local Newspapers

John Draper

On March 20th, a Town hall meeting was held at Victoria Hall on the subject of “what to do about the loss of a daily newspaper?”  The Town was supportive by waiving the Hall rental so organizer Rob Washburn reported back on Monday on what came out of it.  Rob said that there were about 150 attendees and that it “was an unqualified success”.  People were passionate about the subject and showed that they were interested in a wide range of topics: not just politics but also community organizations, cultural groups, and events. Since then news providers have expanded: Northumberland News has expanded, 89.7 FM is producing more news, Today’s Northumberland was recently created, the Burd report has started up… Read complete articleUpdate on Local Newspapers