Tag: County

Health Team gets funding for Community Paramedicine

John Draper

The Ford Government last year announced that LHINs would be disbanded and instead we would have “Health Teams” and Northumberland was one of the first to form such a team.  One of their goals in the first year was to implement a Community Paramedicine program and now MPP David Piccini has announced that this will be funded by the Province to the tune of  $342,000.  The idea is to take advantage of skills that paramedics already have and do some pro-active health care.  So as well as paramedics responding to 911 calls, they will also do things like “assisting with diabetic care, doing medication assessment, providing flu vaccinations, conducting post-injury or illness evaluation, and other care functions”.  The overall intent… Read complete articleHealth Team gets funding for Community Paramedicine

New Initiatives at Venture 13

John Draper

The focus at Venture 13 is on encouraging Entrepreneurs – especially young start-ups.  But on Tuesday, Northumberland Community Futures Development Corporation (CFDC) announced a new program where Cobourg Police are partnering with innovators.  On Wednesday, they also announced a partnership with Telus with a focus on the Internet of Things (IoT) technology.  Both CFDC and Cobourg Police were anchor organizations with the Town of Cobourg in the founding of Venture 13 in May 2018.  (See links below).  Wendy Curtis, Executive Director of Northumberland CFDC, said that the Cobourg Police service is “one of the most innovative in the country” and now they are taking it further with their new PoliceTech Accelerator.  That’s not a new pursuit car but a “test… Read complete articleNew Initiatives at Venture 13

County Budget Brings Changes

John Draper

After a longer than usual review, County Council approved the 2020 budget on 13 February with an increase over last year of 2.61% in the tax levy.  Included in the budget are some key initiatives plus some changes in fees.  This year will see “breaking ground for construction of the new Golden Plough Lodge and Northumberland County Archives & Museum facility” and “continuing with county-wide implementation of the Affordable Housing Strategy, including completion of a detailed design for the Elgin Park Redevelopment Project.” Effective March 30, fees for tipping at Community Recycling Centres (CRC) (that’s the latest name for the waste dumps) will increase from $115 to $130 per tonne and Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) operations at the Brighton and… Read complete articleCounty Budget Brings 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

County Taxes for 2020

John Draper

At the County Council meeting on 18 November, the focus will likely be on the election of a new warden for 2020 but also on the agenda is a report from Glenn Dees, the County’s Director of Finance.  With 44 pages, the report details the rationale for the County’s 2020 budget, how it is structured, how the money is spent and where it comes from.  Although it has much less detail than Cobourg’s Draft budget (which has also just been released), it uses more graphics and is more user friendly in its explanations.  It also shows a high concern for long term trends and viability.  But their targeted levy increase was 3% and that is what is proposed for approval. … Read complete articleCounty Taxes for 2020

New Waste Programs Finally Operational

John Draper

If you live in a house in Cobourg and not certain Condos, you will now be using the new Blue Box, Grey box and Green bin program as well as continuing with garbage bags.  It’s just as well that it does not apply to Condos like the one I live in because we don’t have anywhere to put multiple boxes – friends with a house and connected garage don’t have this problem.  Our garbage gets sorted by recyclable or not then gets taken by a contractor to Lindsay!  (I don’t know what other Condos do).  It seems that Northumberland is moving the work of sorting garbage to the taxpayer instead of it being paid for by taxes.  And some recent… Read complete articleNew Waste Programs Finally Operational

Plan to Preserve Natural Heritage

John Draper

The County is working on a project to map the County’s Natural Heritage features.  The idea is to identify what should be preserved – things like woodlands, streams, wetlands and grasslands.  It’s called a Natural Heritage System Plan (NHS Plan) because they are all interconnected.  The requirement to have this kind of plan was specified by the Province some time ago.  On Monday December 2,  the second of a series of meetings was held to explain this to the Public and solicit feedback.  As usual, not a lot of people showed up – I counted 15 – and these seemed to be mostly concerned with issues not covered by the plan.  The consultants presenting the details said that they were… Read complete articlePlan to Preserve Natural Heritage

Cobourg and Social Services

John Draper

The County has prime responsibility for providing social services and that includes affordable housing.  At Monday’s Council meeting, Christine Pacini of SHS Consulting presented a report on the County’s Affordable Housing strategy as it affected Cobourg.  She provided definitions of what is considered affordable and how incentives can help. She briefly mentioned the County’s current project on Elgin Street (see link below) and supported the Town’s plan to provide incentives via a Town Wide Community Improvement Plan (CIP) for affordable housing.  This will be launched at a public meeting on December 5 – details below.  At the same meeting, Kristina Nairn of the Haliburton, Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit (HKPR) asked that Council consider being certified as a “living… Read complete articleCobourg and Social Services