Category: News 2019

Documentary Film made of Artists Painting our Marina

John Draper

On Sunday 22 September, Canadian Film Production company marblemedia filmed an episode of a new documentary Canada’s Landscape Artist of the Year. It’s based on a similar UK production where artists go to different locations and produce a quality painting in four hours.  Glass “pods” are provided for them – in the case of Cobourg, these were built on the Esplanade. Six artists from across Canada were invited to use the pods although there were another dozen artists also painting but not in the pods.  These were located on the grassed area behind the Marina Fueling dock. The filming was expected to take all day and included conversations with the artists.  Although residents and visitors were generally not impeded by… Read complete articleDocumentary Film made of Artists Painting our Marina

Dragon Boat Festival 2019

John Draper

Cobourg’s West Harbour was alive today with the Annual Dragon Boat festival – a fund-raiser for the United Way.  It started at 8:00 am and ran until 4:00 pm. Now in its 20th year –  there were 13 teams, 5 competitive and the others simply participating.  One of the teams (of course) is the Survivor Thrivers but there are other local teams such as Rotary as well as visitors from Ottawa and Belleville.  Visiting teams usually stay overnight and enjoy their weekend in Cobourg.  Races start at the East Pier and about 1 minute and 15 seconds later they finish at the West headland.  Weather is not always good but today was sunny and hot – unusual for September 21. … Read complete articleDragon Boat Festival 2019

CIP grants and Loans for 2019 announced

John Draper

The intent of the Downtown Community Improvement Program (CIP) is to provide money incentives for the upgrade of Downtown properties so that Downtown would become more attractive and prosperous.  The first grants and loans were in 2016 and they have been disbursed each year since then. (See reports below).  For 2019, there will be only one intake (instead of 2 in previous years) and the budget decreased from $150K to $75K.  In addition, there will be an increased focus on larger projects like the one in 2018 at 35 King (Cheslers) which added new apartment units.  Another criterion is high leverage – that is, where the total project costs a significant multiple of the amount granted.  Note that the cost… Read complete articleCIP grants and Loans for 2019 announced

Future Nagle Road Interchange

John Draper

At some future and undecided date, the 401 from Cobourg to Colborne will be widened to 6 lanes and even further in the future, it will become 8 lanes.  The MTO has started an environmental assessment and related preliminary design for this stretch of road.  Also at some future unknown date, Cobourg will need another interchange in the East End and has identified Nagle Road as the location.  Given that the MTO was already doing the work for the nearby road, Cobourg can save money long term by piggy-backing the Nagle Road study on the bigger one so that’s what they did.  The Public Information Centre (PIC) for both studies was held last Wednesday (Sept 18) at the Cobourg Lions’… Read complete articleFuture Nagle Road Interchange

Official Opening of Affordable Rental Housing on Munroe Street

John Draper

At a ceremony yesterday, 31 new apartments at 86 Munroe Street were declared available for rent.  But prospective renters were not waiting for the official opening – there were 100 applications received for the 31 units and several have already moved in.  The project was conceived and is owned by “Affordable Housing Solutions Corporation” but is funded with help from the Federal Government, Provincial Government, Northumberland County and the Town of Cobourg although details of the funding split were not released.  There are 27 one-bedroom units and 4 two-bedroom units of which 5 are accessible units.  The building has a shared amenity room and a laundry facility for all residents. The apartments rent for approximately 80 per cent of the… Read complete articleOfficial Opening of Affordable Rental Housing on Munroe Street

Few Citizen inputs to Town’s 2020 budget

John Draper

Cobourg Council held a public meeting on Monday to hear submissions by the public on what the Town’s 2020 budget should include – or not.  There were 4 submissions on a range of subjects with only 7 people in the gallery.  The meeting was chaired by Deputy Mayor Suzanne Séguin because of her responsibility for budget management. She started the meeting with a reminder that the budget should align with the Strategic Plan and said that the theme this year is to “refurbish, restore and re-vitalize”, that is, we should “look after what we have before we start planning for anything new”.  There were four submissions: an email from Diane Lush, a verbal submission by Ted Williams, a presentation with… Read complete articleFew Citizen inputs to Town’s 2020 budget

Justin Trudeau’s quick visit to Cobourg

John Draper

With short notice to most of us, Justin Trudeau came to Cobourg today to help Kim Rudd with her campaign. This follows the visit by Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer about 3 weeks ago. There were two bus loads – one with media and the other with Justin and his staff. Somewhere in there were security people and of course two Cobourg police were standing by.  Justin stopped by the Buttermilk Café and spoke to a number of patrons – all seemed pleased to see him and many wanted photos. There were a lot more media people than for Scheer on his visit but maybe that’s because the writ has now dropped – see the photos.  After the Buttermilk, Justin walked down King Street to… Read complete articleJustin Trudeau’s quick visit to Cobourg

UNITY Project at Cobourg’s Farmers’ Market

John Draper

In June of 2016, Nancy Belmont created UNITY, an interactive public art project, as a response to the divisiveness and negative rhetoric in American politics.  In August 2016, it came to Port Hope (see link below) and on Saturday September 14, 2019 it came to Cobourg. Tricky to explain, it ends up with a structure of 32 poles around a centre pole all connected by yarn.  The idea is to see that we are all connected by something – and hopefully promote the idea that diversity builds a strong and vibrant community.  Nancy lives in Virginia but the Northumberland champion is Megan Deyman, the co-ordinator of the Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland Drug Strategy.  Other groups involved are Green Wood Coalition,… Read complete articleUNITY Project at Cobourg’s Farmers’ Market