Problems with Wheels Transportation Service

John Draper

At the Committee of the Whole Council meeting on Monday, two issues were raised by delegations that affected transport for disabled people. One was about a person who needed to go to the Hospital from the Golden Plough Lodge (GPL).  Since it was an emergency, an ambulance provided Transportation but when the patient was discharged, it was no longer an emergency so an ambulance was not available. However, since the 93 year old was on a stretcher, there was no way to get home to the GPL who said they are not mandated to provide this kind of transport. Eventually, after a long wait and a $160.18 charge to a credit card, Voyageur Medical Transportation did the job. The other… Read complete articleProblems with Wheels Transportation Service

Cobourg’s Taxi Regulations to be Updated

John Draper

In February 2019, Cobourg Council decided to look at the regulations/By-Laws governing Taxis to see if complaints by users and Taxi owners could be resolved.  Issues included availability of accessible cabs, fares not sufficient to encourage new taxis, the cap on the number of taxis was too low and there was no provision for Uber, Lyft and similar services. (The Town calls these Transportation Network Companies – TNCs).  Although the cap was quickly removed, it was felt that input from cab-owners, cab-drivers and taxi users was needed before further changes were made.  So from September 16, 2019 until October 11, 2019, an online survey was conducted that got input from 116 Citizens, 4 Taxicab Owners and 3 Taxicab Drivers but… Read complete articleCobourg’s Taxi Regulations to be Updated

Cobourg’s Ten Thousand Villages to Stay Open

John Draper

The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is a Christian organization dedicated to Social causes – or as they put it “working for peace and justice”.  In Canada in 1972, they started the Ten Thousand Villages chain of stores selling “Fair Trade” goods.  Fair Trade means that the people who make the goods in the stores, generally in third world countries, get paid fairly and sustainably.  (More on this below).  But unfortunately, in the last few years, MCC have found it financially impossible to continue their stores.  In 2018 they closed nine stores and on Tuesday January 21, they announced the closure of the remaining 10 company stores while leaving the twelve “board” stores to make their own decision.  “Board” stores are… Read complete articleCobourg’s Ten Thousand Villages to Stay Open

More Trees in Cobourg

John Draper

In 2019, Cobourg had a net loss of 75 trees and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee didn’t think the Town was putting enough money into the budget to replace and add to them.  At their meeting on January 7th, they made a motion that the budget be increased from the $50K proposed to $100K.  Further they wanted an extra $50K for replacement of Emerald Ash trees which are continuing to die off.  Their motion will be presented to the Committee of the Whole Council meeting on January 27 but meanwhile, Budget meetings have been held where the subject was raised by Emily Chorley (she attends the Parks and Rec meetings).  She convinced Council to increase the budget from $50K… Read complete articleMore Trees in Cobourg

Canoe Club and Town Reach Agreement

John Draper

In September 2019, a Safety audit of the harbour resulted in a conflict between the Dragon Boat & Canoe Club (CDBCC)and Marina Management.  A number of recommendations were made but the focus was on the club’s activities.  In an effort to resolve the problems relating specifically to the CDBCC, a working group was established made up of Jeremy Fowlie, Kim Burgeron, and Dean Coates representing the CDBCC and Suzanne Seguin, Emily Chorley and Ian Davey representing the Town.  Ian Davey will be presenting a recommendation to Council at the Committee of the Whole meeting on 27 January that includes an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) that spells out a number of changes plus the responsibilities of both the Town and the… Read complete articleCanoe Club and Town Reach Agreement

Northumberland Mall Changes

John Draper

NOTE: This post is dated 17 Jan 2020. The Mall is obviously ripe for a makeover but Trinity group who are managing the Mall, are not revealing their plans.  Although Mall ownership changed hands in the last few weeks, Trinity Group are still managing the property.  The Mall looks tired since routine maintenance is not getting done and tenants in the Mall are gradually moving out.  There is growth, but not in the Mall proper – the new “strip plaza” in the parking lot facing Elgin is now at the Site Plan approval stage (more here) and new tenants are moving into the outside spaces. Based on what we know so far, we can deduce that drastic changes will be… Read complete articleNorthumberland Mall Changes

GO Bus Service to Cobourg

John Draper

For at least 15 years, local residents have been lobbying for an extension of the Go Bus/Train service to Port Hope and Cobourg (see links below).  In 2015, Mayors from Clarington, Port Hope, Cobourg and others got together to commission a study and subsequently the Province announced that the train would be extended to Bowmanville.  But the hope of lobbyists is that the Go Bus service which currently terminates in Newcastle would continue on to Port Hope and Cobourg’s Northumberland Mall. To do this, they must first convince Metrolinx that there is a viable business case. This recently stepped into high gear when Northumberland County added a goal to its current Strategic Plan to “Advocate for extension of GO Transit… Read complete articleGO Bus Service to Cobourg

Progress on New Museum for Dressler House

John Draper

Marie Dressler Foundation is planning an expansion of the museum at Dressler House to include sections for the other two Canadian female Oscar winners: Mary Pickford and Norma Shearer and at Monday’s Council Meeting, the team working on this gave a progress report.  Toronto University agreed to offer the project to students in their Master program for Museum Studies and 5 students accepted: Michelle Wright, Enya Barbeau, Karen Cheung, Natalie Heaton and Emma Myers.  They presented a brief overview of what the museum will look like and talked about the great access they had to experts who are knowledgeable about the two stars plus thousands of artifacts – mostly photographs and film clips.  It appears that this will be the… Read complete articleProgress on New Museum for Dressler House