Category: News 2021

Residents Request Grants for 2022

John Draper

The main item on the Agenda for Monday’s Special Council meeting was for citizens to convince Council that their request for a Community grant should be approved.  When  applications closed on October 31, 26 requests for a community Grant had been received – totalling $91,926.  Last year, 11 organizations received a total of $28,681 and Deputy Mayor Suzanne Séguin indicated that she expected that less than $30K should be approved this time.  All organizations were invited to present their case to Council but only 14 did so – the total of those presenting came to $42,076.  The full list is provided below.  In 2020, a total of $49,575 was approved for 26 organizations.  At the same meeting, Council also accepted input… Read complete articleResidents Request Grants for 2022

Report on Municipal Land for Affordable Housing

John Draper

When the Community Improvement Plan (CIP) for Affordable Housing was approved by Council in November 2020, Council added a requirement for “staff to put together an inventory of potential municipal owned surplus lands, buildings and/or facilities by March 22, 2021”.  This was done but then Staff recommended that an Ad Hoc committee be formed “to undertake a shortlist exercise and formalize an implementation plan moving forward.”  This committee’s report will be provided at the Committee of the Whole Council meeting on 15 November; they will provide a list of five priority sites and three secondary priority locations.  Few could be called surplus – in fact the three secondary sites are public parks.  The committee recommends further public consultation and staff… Read complete articleReport on Municipal Land for Affordable Housing

AGN MOU, Lease and Budget

John Draper

The relationship between the Art Gallery of Northumberland (AGN) and the Town of Cobourg has not always been happy nor well defined since the AGN was established in 1960.  The AGN occupies all of the third floor of the West Wing of Victoria Hall plus some storage locations on the second floor and the basement for a total floor area of 3,299 square feet.  Up until recently, they have been charged $45,000 per year for rent but then granted that money in each year’s budget.  Each year they also submit a request for about $170K more towards their budget of about $300K.  The process of coming to an agreement has not been well defined so at the next Committee of… Read complete articleAGN MOU, Lease and Budget

County Agrees to Hospital Tax

John Draper

Part of the County’s tax revenue for 2022 will go to County Hospitals – Northumberland Hills Hospital (NHH) and Campbellford Memorial Hospital (CMH).  As reported earlier (see Links below), the two Hospitals’ fund-raising Foundations originally asked for $1M per year for 10 years and after pushback, lowered that to 1% of the County Levy.  As well as regular Council Meetings, the County held two special meetings to consider the request with the latest one being at 9:30 am this morning (Thursday November 4). Each Councillor made their position known and their reasoning and it was soon clear that although a majority favoured some kind of support, it was not to the level requested.  In the end a recorded vote was… Read complete articleCounty Agrees to Hospital Tax

Once Again CCC to Host Vaccination Clinic

John Draper

At Monday’s regular Council meeting, Council agreed to allow the Cobourg Community Centre (CCC) to be used as a vaccination clinic from November 5 to March 31, 2022. The HKPR District Health Unit expects that in the next week or so, two groups will be authorized for Vaccination: 1) third (booster) shots for those over 70 and Health Care workers and 2) young children.  For Northumberland alone, there are 11,000 in the first group and 5,000 in the second.  It’s hoped that these would be vaccinated before the end of the year – people in the first group already double vaccinated would be eligible 6 months after their second shot.  Vaccinations would be by appointments managed by the Provincial portal… Read complete articleOnce Again CCC to Host Vaccination Clinic

Update on Organization Review

John Draper

Tonight, October 28, Council had a special Committee of the Whole meeting to review the Organization changes proposed by the CAO, Tracey Vaughan.  It was preceded by a two hour closed session to discuss a subject that was not disclosed although there was talk of “Cost Savings”.  The general impression I got from the meeting was that Councillors were generally accepting the recommendations with no major objections.  In fact, Councillor Emily Chorley asked that since the By-Law Enforcement manager, the Grant Writer and the additional Building Official were all cost neutral, why not hire them sooner than July 1?  Councillor Brian Darling made a motion to that effect which passed.  Council then discussed each new position and this provided some… Read complete articleUpdate on Organization Review

Cobourg’s Santa Parade will now be at Night

John Draper

If you have been following other Cobourg News Sources, you’ll already know that at Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, Council decided to stage a Santa Parade this year after all.  But it will be quite different from other years.  The reason for the change from the earlier decision (which was to cancel and instead have Santa Tour the Town), was because MPP Piccini told the Mayor that the Province would announce today (Wednesday) that all crowd size limits would be lifted for both Remembrance Day and Santa Parades.  The Province’s announcement has not yet come so details such as the exact route have also not yet been announced.  But the date is different – it will be on December… Read complete articleCobourg’s Santa Parade will now be at Night

Special Council Meeting to discuss Organization Review

John Draper

At the Committee of the Whole (CoW) Meeting on Monday, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Tracey Vaughan provided her recommendations for implementing the changes and additions proposed by consultant KPMG.  As mentioned in a previous post, these changes would cost around $1M and are major changes in structure and ways of working.  Tracey delivered her detailed report in time for Monday’s CoW meeting and for 2022 budget deliberations but despite a closed session meeting before the CoW meeting, Council were not ready to discuss it and voted to defer discussion to two more meetings on Thursday October 28: a closed session meeting at 4:00 pm and an open session at 6:00 pm.  My quick look at the published draft budget seems… Read complete articleSpecial Council Meeting to discuss Organization Review