Category: News 2019

Police Chief Kai Liu to Leave Cobourg

John Draper

Police Chief Kai Liu has probably been the most effective and popular Police Chief that Cobourg has had for some time and he has now announced his “retirement” – but only from the Cobourg service.  He has accepted a position as Police Chief at a community “three times larger than Cobourg”.  The change is effective September 1, 2019 although effective July 26, current Deputy Chief Paul Vandegraaf has been named Chief Designate.  Paul will be officially named Chief at a future command ceremony.  Chief Kai Liu was the 13th Chief of Police in the 159-year history of the Cobourg Police Service and has been with the force for seven years.  The announcement was made on July 26 by Dean Pepper,… Read complete articlePolice Chief Kai Liu to Leave Cobourg

Update on Housing Developments – July 2019

John Draper

At the Council meeting on 22 July, an update on developments currently with the planning department was given by Councillor Aaron Burchat (on behalf of Planning coordinator Nicole Beatty who was absent).  Aaron said there were 25 projects and listed 12 of them.  They included projects that had recently come before council plus some others.  There is a wide range planned – some are low cost and affordable while others are “high end”.  It’s clear a good number of major developers are interested in the Cobourg market – perhaps encouraged by the recent rise in house prices here.  These include Stalwood, New Amherst, Mason Homes, Rondeau, LeBlanc Homes, Balder Corporation and Rollins Investments.  Some have been in various stages for… Read complete articleUpdate on Housing Developments – July 2019

Cornerstone at Council Meeting

John Draper

Cornerstone is an organization that everyone can support.  Dedicated to helping women suffering from domestic violence – to spell that out, that’s a man beating his wife – they do get some government money but not enough.  So they have fundraisers and their major one is the event called “Walk a mile in her shoes” which is being held in Cobourg at the Harvest festival on King Street on Saturday September 28.  While it started with a group of men wearing red high heel shoes, Cornerstone is now encouraging anyone to participate wearing any kind of shoes although they do have 100 red shoes you can borrow – of all sizes.  At the Committee of the Whole Council meeting on… Read complete articleCornerstone at Council Meeting

Dragon Boat and Canoe Club Dilemma

John Draper

At tonight’s Committee of the Whole Meeting, Jeremy Fowlie of the Cobourg Dragon Boat and  Canoe Club (CDBCC) had a simple request – let us have our own space and let us move the mast racks out of our space into the Cobourg Yacht Club space.  The mast racks are meant for big masts and are not suitable for storing our canoes and kayaks. But along the way he spoke of other problems – he said that the rules and requirements keep changing so it would be good if an MOU could be drawn up to spell out exactly what the rules are.  Jeremy felt that although things had been previously agreed, suddenly he was told that he could no… Read complete articleDragon Boat and Canoe Club Dilemma

County Releases 2018 Financial Report

John Draper

At their recent Council meeting, Northumberland County released their Financial report for 2018. The report for this year has a format similar to previous reports – with the same problems:  the report includes details of where the County is, who the players are, what was achieved and what’s planned for 2019 but most of it is detail which I would guess is of little interest to most taxpayers.  The report says very little about Capital projects and a lot about operational items which no doubt keep staff busy.  CAO Jennifer Moore seems to be making good progress in increasing efficiency and wants to improve transparency but I think taxpayers are mostly interested in what services are provided for the taxes paid.  On… Read complete articleCounty Releases 2018 Financial Report

People’s Party Names Federal Election Candidate

John Draper

The People’s Party of Canada (PPC) was launched by Maxime Bernier on September 14, 2018 when he broke away from the Conservative Party. Elections Canada gave it official recognition on January 18, 2019. In November 2018, the PPC established an Electoral District Association (EDA) in Northumberland Peterborough-South (see report below).  At the time, Frank Vaughan, a farmer from Codrington, was appointed as Riding president and now he has announced he will be the local PPC Candidate in the Federal election in October.  Frank has issued a long rationale as to why he is running but it is clear that when he references previous government actions, he is unhappy with both Conservatives and Liberals.  The emergence of the PPC and the… Read complete articlePeople’s Party Names Federal Election Candidate

New Pub on King Street

John Draper

A new pub called “Taps and Corks” has opened in Downtown Cobourg – at 70 King West – and it has a new formula.  Buy your food or nibbles, maybe on King Street, and bring them in and savour a craft beer or wine.  Andee and Tracy Kitchen got the general idea of their new venture from a place in Edmonton then they researched where they wanted to set up.  They looked at a number of Ontario locations but liked Cobourg the best. Andee said that they “serve local craft beers, wines and ciders from around Ontario and provide a cool comfy place to enjoy each and every sip with your friends. … I guess you could call us a… Read complete articleNew Pub on King Street

News Sources for Cobourg

John Draper

With the closing of Cobourg’s only daily newspaper in November of 2017, many have struggled to find out what’s happening.  A group led by Journalists John Miller and Rob Washburn started Northumberland Hub to try to provide a way of steering people to alternative news sources but that closed in February, 2019.  At the risk of leaving out useful sources and expressing an opinion, I thought it’s time to recap how to get news updates if you live in Cobourg.  If you are reading this, you know that Cobourg News blog is part of that but it does not by itself completely fill the gap. The short answer is that instead of relying on a single newspaper for everything, you… Read complete articleNews Sources for Cobourg