Category: News 2023

Is Disc Golf Coming to Cobourg?

John Draper

At the regular Council meeting on May 23, Local resident Drew Johnson spoke to Council and asked that the Town look at creating a disc golf course or practice area since the nearest courses are in Brighton and north of Port Hope at Haute Goat Farms.  At the June 5 CoW meeting, Director Brian Geerts reported to Council on what he was doing to address this request.  The basic idea of disc golf is to throw a frisbee in multiple throws until it lands in a basket.   The distance between baskets is comparable to regular golf and courses are typically 18 or 9 baskets.  I find it hard to imagine what it’s like but the videos below give some idea…. Read complete articleIs Disc Golf Coming to Cobourg?

Ben Burd Asks for Better Citizen Engagement

John Draper

At yesterday’s Committee of the Whole (CoW) Council meeting, Cobourg resident Ben Burd diplomatically suggested that the Town’s communication staff needed training so that they could do a better job of finding out what citizens really wanted.  The main thing that Ben wanted was that the Committee set up to decide on Governance should not meet until after the planned public meeting on June 19th had heard from citizens. It looked like decisions would be made before hearing from the public. However, Deputy Mayor Nicole Beatty said that the committee had not yet met.  Ben also pointed to a low attendance of about 10 at the Public information session (Brent Larmer said that there were in fact 12 attending) and only… Read complete articleBen Burd Asks for Better Citizen Engagement

County Promoting Bicycle Tourism

John Draper

There are two cycling clubs that have Cobourg addresses but there are also cyclists from out of town who like to tour the County.  To assist all cyclists in Northumberland, the County is launching a pilot project and installing “Bike Repair Stations” in five locations.  Why now?  Because June 3 is “World Bicycle Day”!  Each repair station includes “a full set of tools for cyclists to make any needed adjustments or any unexpected repairs, to help keep rolling along”.  The most common problem is a flat tire so a pump is provided – a manually operated one.  Also provided are commonly required tools.  Because of the risk of tools being stolen, they are tethered with “chain or coated aircraft cable”. … Read complete articleCounty Promoting Bicycle Tourism

Community Grants Policy

John Draper

The Policy for Community Grants was set some time ago – see Resources below – but at the budget meetings in February 2023, Council passed a motion to review the Policy to at least make the process more efficient and possibly do away with community grants altogether. Specifically, a motion was passed directing staff to explore options and report back by June 2023. If you look at the video of the Feb 9 meeting, this motion is passed at around the 1:17 mark but it’s not recorded in the minutes. I reported this motion and the list of approved grants in a Post on February 10 titled “Last Year for Community Grants?”. Applications for the 2024 grants are now being… Read complete articleCommunity Grants Policy

Firefighters Museum Update

John Draper

A memo to Council from Brian Geerts, Director of Community Services, at the Committee of the Whole Council meeting on June 5 will provide an update on what’s happening to the Memorial Arena. In April 2021, an Ad Hoc committee was set up to explore options for what should be done with the Memorial Arena which had been closed in 2019. The first choice was to lease it to the Firefighters Museum which had previously been located in Port Hope. The museum opened in 1984 and closed in 2018 and has been on hold pending finding a new location. Meanwhile, their Facebook page is quite active and they recently announced that “we are now looking seriously at this unused arena… Read complete articleFirefighters Museum Update

Council Debates Transit Hybrid Fixed Route

John Draper

There’s no move to change to the previous fixed route system but at the recent Council meeting, Councillor Adam Bureau pushed strongly to have a hybrid transit system – at least until enough buses could be deployed. Adam said that currently there are 2 buses when there should be 5 (see below for more detail) and that as an interim measure, one bus should operate on a fixed route with two continuing with on-demand service. Other councillors were not convinced and pointed to a number of problems. Funding for the extra bus would come out of reserves intended to pay for new buses but Deputy Mayor Nicole Beatty said that this would go against Council’s goal of setting aside money… Read complete articleCouncil Debates Transit Hybrid Fixed Route

New Parking By-Law

John Draper

Changes to the Parking by-law caused considerable debate at both the Committee of the Whole meeting on May 15 and the Regular Council meeting on May 23.  Two items were hotly debated: First: The general time limit for Parking on a street – it was proposed to change this from the current 48 hours to 3 hours. Second: Instead of simply banning parking in front of a driveway, it was proposed to require a 2 metre spacing. There were also a number of other changes involving items that had been previously approved by Council such as Waterfront Parking but there was no further debate on those. Brent Larmer said that the 48 hour limit on street parking was not enforceable and… Read complete articleNew Parking By-Law

Province to Provide Additional Funding for Housing

John Draper

On Friday, MPP David Piccini announced that the Province would provide Northumberland County with an additional $2M towards their Homelessness Prevention Program.  Mayor Lucas Cleveland and all Cobourg Councillors were at the announcement as were representatives from County staff and other County Townships.  Police Chief VandeGraaf was also in attendance.  David Piccini and Warden Mandy Martin were the only speakers. David said that the increased funding would help end the housing supply crisis and help end homelessness and that the Province remains a committed Partner. Mandy expressed her gratitude to the Province – she said that the investment comes at a critical time and she looks forward to continuing cooperation from all levels of Government.  Mandy spoke about the County’s… Read complete articleProvince to Provide Additional Funding for Housing