Category: News 2018

Boost to Cobourg Tourism planned

John Draper

Under the direction of Dean Hustwick, Director of Recreation and Culture, Cobourg is adopting a new strategy to attract Tourists to Cobourg.  Instead of simply listing attractions, a new “guide” will focus on “experiences”.  Other initiatives include a new tourism web site to expand on this and the hiring of summer students as “experience ambassadors” to encourage visitors to stay longer and spend more.  Work on this project was done by Bryan Mercer, a contract employee who has many years of experience marketing Tourism, most recently in Kingston.  Bryan presented the result of his work to Council on Monday and handed out copies of the new guide to Councillors and the media. The new guide looks very different to previous… Read complete articleBoost to Cobourg Tourism planned

John Lee has Criticism and Suggestions for Downtown

John Draper

At the regular council meeting on Monday, John Lee and Patrick Bonneville made two presentations that showed that although there are many closed stores on King Street and many in bad repair, the ones that his company Phoenix Genesis have been involved with were in much better shape. They also pointed to Condo developments they had done.  He made a number of suggestions on how the Downtown could be vitalized and also made accusations that the Town was biased and unhelpful in his dealings with them. Along the way, John clashed with Mayor Gil Brocanier and seemed to not make any friends on Council.  He also quoted Cobourg Blog News as saying that Gil said that he “would hold his feet to the… Read complete articleJohn Lee has Criticism and Suggestions for Downtown

Good Turnout at Town Hall on Local News

John Draper

About 160 people were at the meeting in Victoria Hall tonight led by Rob Washburn.  When Rob introduced it he said that it was more a conversation than a meeting – no decisions were made but a lot of ideas were presented.  At the meeting I saw many political figures: Lou Rinaldi, John Henderson, Brian Darling, Aaron Burchat, David Piccini and Adam Bureau. During the meeting many of the local journalists and media representatives were there and spoke up – too many to name individually.  These included Northumberland News, SNAP, CHEX, My Broadcasting, FM89.7 as well as Social media: Now Network, Cobourg Media and Cobourg Internet.  Many in the audience spoke of many years of experience in newspapers or radio… Read complete articleGood Turnout at Town Hall on Local News

School Rezoning Meeting gets Heated

John Draper

The gallery was full for Monday’s public meeting on the proposed rezoning of land in New Amherst to allow for a Catholic French language school to be built (see links below for more on the proposed school).  The application for rezoning was first made last November and, with a time limit of 120 days for a decision before the developer can ask the OMB to intervene, the Public meeting was held on day 119.  Although she does not live in the area, Emily Chorley was critical of the process and pointed to her own experience with the rezoning on College Street (see links below).  Residents were also highly critical of both the process and of the planned school.  Max LeMarchant,… Read complete articleSchool Rezoning Meeting gets Heated

Reminder – Town Hall meeting on Local News

John Draper

Hopefully most people in Cobourg know by now that a group has been formed to see if there is anything that can be done to replace the gap left by the shutdown of Northumberland Today.  Currently led by Professor of e-journalism Rob Washburn, a Public Town Hall meeting has been organized for Tuesday March 20th at 7:00pm in Cobourg’s Victoria Hall.  Rob asked Cobourg Council for support in the cost of that and Council approved his request on February 20.  Since this initiative started, there has been some activity online (see links below) but no printed replacement newspaper.  But is there demand for a daily printed paper?  What do people really want?  What are they prepared to pay for?  Come… Read complete articleReminder – Town Hall meeting on Local News

Progress with Remuneration Ad Hoc Committee

John Draper

On March 1st, the first meeting was held of the Ad Hoc committee charged with deciding on remuneration for Councillors and Police Board members in the next term of Council.  As Deputy Mayor John Henderson explains in the video below, there is no methodology mandated as to how this should be done so John decided to create an Ad Hoc Advisory committee for the purpose.  The idea was first put forward in September 2017 when it was realized that after tax pay would actually decrease if nothing was done.  This is because of the recent elimination of a tax break for a third of the “salary” which was classified as expenses.  But then the start of work was delayed because… Read complete articleProgress with Remuneration Ad Hoc Committee

Province Provides Grant to Cobourg for Downtown

John Draper

Lou Rinaldi, MPP for Northumberland Quinte-West today announced that the Province will be “investing”  $40 million over three years in the Main Street Enhancement Fund.  Of this, $26M will be provided in 2018 for the Main Street Revitalization Initiative with $380,000 going to Lou’s Riding. Cobourg’s share is $52,509 while Port Hope gets $50,234 and Hamilton gets $45,312 (more detail in links below). These numbers are maximum amounts – no detail was provided on exactly what the conditions are for disbursement – presumably there will need to be a demonstration that the money was spent on relevant projects.  At the announcement, Mayor Gil Brocanier said that new initiatives on downtown vitalization will be coming.  Currently, work on downtown vitalization is… Read complete articleProvince Provides Grant to Cobourg for Downtown

ACO Concerned about Zoning Inconsistencies

John Draper

When the progress to the current Strategic Plan was reviewed in June 2017, CAO Stephen Peacock said that “now that the Official Plan is approved, new Zoning bylaws are required and scheduled for 2017-18”.  At the Council meeting on March 12, Glenn McGlashon, Director of Planning said that a review of the Zoning by-law is currently being done and should be ready by the summer.  He said that the process would include public meetings.  His remarks were prompted by a presentation by Diane Chin, representative of the Architectural Conservancy Ontario (ACO), Cobourg Chapter.  Diane pointed out that a large number of properties officially considered Heritage are currently zoned R4 or R5 which permits use as multiple residences. You may remember… Read complete articleACO Concerned about Zoning Inconsistencies