Tag: Society

Army Reserve Planning 100 Mile March

John Draper

The local Army Reserve, the Hastings Prince Edward Regiment, is planning to hold a “ruck march” to raise awareness of their activities and that they are actively recruiting.  One of their locations is in Cobourg, 210 Willmott Street, where they do training on Thursday evenings (September to June) from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm.  On July 8 and 9, the regiment will march from that location to their headquarters at the Armoury in Belleville via Bewdley, Peterborough and Campbellford for a total distance of 161 km (100 miles) over 2 days.  There are about 20 reservists in Cobourg  – more from other towns including Peterborough and Belleville. The march will be broken up into 8 legs – each about 20… Read complete articleArmy Reserve Planning 100 Mile March

Max’s Big Ride comes to Cobourg

John Draper

Eight year old Max Sedmihradsky has Duchenne muscular dystrophy which currently has no cure and will likely confine him to a wheelchair by the time he is 12.  He may not survive past his mid-20’s.  But his Mom and Dad are not giving up – this is the fifth time his Dad Andrew has ridden a cargobike with Max from his hometown of Hamilton to Ottawa with the aim of raising money to support research to find a cure for the disease (which seems promising – see Links below).  Also along this year were his 3 year old sister Ilsa and of course Mom Kerri.  Since they started in 2015, they have raised over $170,000 – this year the goal… Read complete articleMax’s Big Ride comes to Cobourg

Gay Pride Month – 2019

John Draper

This year, Cobourg celebrates the beginning of Gay Pride month with a rainbow crosswalk at King and Second Street (not Third as reported earlier).  There was a large crowd at a ceremony today in front of Victoria Hall:  Mayor John Henderson, Police Chief Kai Liu, Councillor Adam Bureau and Ashley Bouman (Leader of the local pflag chapter) spoke about inclusiveness, community and a supportive environment.   The size of the audience at event this year was noticeably bigger than previous years – in  2016 there was less than half a dozen at the flag raising at the Police Station.   As in previous years, there will also be a parade later in the month.  Council has been supportive by proclaiming June Pride… Read complete articleGay Pride Month – 2019

New Idea for Affordable Housing

John Draper

There has been a lot of activity with affordable housing in the last several months.  Although the County is generally responsible for social welfare issues, the new Cobourg Council has allocated budget and support to a couple of projects and more are likely.  But there are also charitable organizations that are active in helping with affordable housing – notably Habitat for Humanity.  Instead of a focus on making rents affordable, Habitat works at promoting affordable home ownership.  And now the local group, Habitat for Humanity Northumberland (HFHN), has announced the establishment of “a chapter of its organization to investigate the development of a tiny homes project in West Northumberland”.  The idea of “Tiny Homes” is spreading throughout the world and… Read complete articleNew Idea for Affordable Housing

Cobourg Cyclists’ Team Enter Race Across America

John Draper

For 36 years, Race across America (RAAM) has been “challenging ultracyclists from around the globe to push their physical and mental limits to the farthest reaches.”  It’s a 5,000 kilometer nonstop cycling race across America –  starting in Oceanside California and finishing in Annapolis, Maryland.  Contestants will climb 175,000 feet with only 9 days to complete the race!  RAAM is about 30% longer than the Tour de France, but must be completed in half the time. It attracts cyclists from around the globe and is truly the pinnacle of athletic achievement. This year, a team of four cyclists from Cobourg – they call themselves the Cantastic 4 – will be one of the only Canadian teams racing, and they chose… Read complete articleCobourg Cyclists’ Team Enter Race Across America

Durham Architecture Students Display ideas for Downtown

John Draper

Architectural Technology students from Durham College were asked to produce practical designs for potential development locations in Downtown Cobourg.  Their teacher Ali Taileb gave them a choice of one of two locations on Albert Street: either the land adjacent to Rotary Park which is now a parking lot or the land on the South West corner of Albert and Division – now occupied by buildings.  They had to resolve issues that would come up for site plan approval and were briefed on that by Cobourg’s Planning Department.  As a result they worried about issues such as preserving one of the trees, moving buried water mains, parking requirements and more.  They also had to comply with a requirement for a mixed… Read complete articleDurham Architecture Students Display ideas for Downtown

Cobourg Civic Awards – 2019

John Draper

Once again I am amazed at the number of talented people in Cobourg who volunteer their time to make Cobourg that much a better place to live.   It’s one of Cobourg’s “feel good” events.  It’s organized by a committee of citizens (see photo) which includes Toni Galea, executive assistant to the Mayor and CAO – she seems to do a lot of the behind the scenes work as did Petra Hartwig before her.  They are helped by a second committee who select recipients of the awards.  This year, the MC was Olinda Casimiro, Director of the AGN.  Awards were handed out by Councillors and Sponsors.  I managed to get photos of all recipients and they are collected in a video… Read complete articleCobourg Civic Awards – 2019

Council Acts on Affordable Housing

John Draper

At the Committee of the Whole meeting on April 1st, Council was asked to approve support for both the Balder Corporation Proposal and the Trinity Housing Proposal – both of which were behind Nicole Beatty’s initiative to add $250,000 to the Town’s 2019 budget for affordable housing projects.  Staff provided a 28 page memo outlining measures that could be taken to provide support.  One of these is the creation of a Townwide Community Improvement Plan to allow certain incentives to be provided and another is additional staff to implement a “new housing program”.  Staff suggested actions that would cost $360K in addition to a shortfall in revenue of $52K.  Most of this would go towards the Trinity Housing project.  At… Read complete articleCouncil Acts on Affordable Housing