Tag: Waterfront

New Coast Guard Building Approved

John Draper

At the Committee of the Whole Meeting on Monday night, the development agreement for the new Coast Guard building on the east pier was approved. That means that work can start soon: two months are needed to award contracts then demolition of the existing buildings would be done in November/December. Construction of the new building would be done over the winter so that the new facility would be ready for the boating season. Weather permitting, this would be April/May but could stretch into summer. Directors Glenn McGlashon and Dean Hustwick said that this work would not clash with other work on the east Pier.  Dean clarified that East Pier work would be in two parts – repairs and enhancements –… Read complete articleNew Coast Guard Building Approved

East Pier – Public Meeting (Virtual)

John Draper

The next step in Cobourg’s plan to re-vitalize the waterfront is to fix and enhance the East Pier.  This requires extensive public consultation and this started last year (see links below) and now there is another consultation although this time it’s virtual and hosted on Engage Cobourg. This includes a presentation in two versions – a pdf and/or a video – a survey with the first question “have you watched the presentation?” and a forum for free form comments.  The presentation starts with some background information then divides the area into zones and discusses options.  Then the discussion moves into three “design approaches” then finally talks about design palettes  – Contemporary, Heritage or hybrid.  The survey opened Sept 4 and… Read complete articleEast Pier – Public Meeting (Virtual)

Beach Re-opening and Beach Crowds

John Draper

There were three delegations about the beach at Monday’s Committee of the Whole Council meeting – and later in the meeting Council decided how and when to re-open the beach. Adam White wanted more input from residents, and both Paul Pagnuelo and Brenda Quinn wanted a task force to deal with usage of Cobourg’s beaches by non-residents. And when it came to a decision on re-opening the beach, Council included a response to the often repeated request to look into how to manage the summer crowds usually experienced. Many residents have commented that we pay the taxes but visitors pay nothing and yet get to enjoy the beach. If nothing changed, the beach would reopen on September 1 but staff presented Council with four… Read complete articleBeach Re-opening and Beach Crowds

Council to Consider Extending Beach Closure

John Draper

Earlier in the summer, and after a lot of discussion, Cobourg Council closed the main beach until 31 August.  But that date is coming up soon and at their Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting on 24 August, an Agenda item asks Council whether they want to extend that date or not.  Four options are offered by staff: 1) Extend closure to 17 October; 2) Keep beach closed only on weekends to 17 October; 3) extend closure only until after Labour Day and re-open 8 September OR 4) another option determined by Council.  In each case, there will be no lifeguards and washrooms will remain closed but port-o-potties will be available.  I’d be surprised if there are no citizen delegations on… Read complete articleCouncil to Consider Extending Beach Closure

A Quiet Day on Cobourg’s Waterfront

John Draper

The Saturday of the first weekend in August is usually Cobourg’s busiest day of the year – especially if it’s hot.  Well this year, the weather was hot but the main beach was closed and there was no Sandcastle Festival.  There is usually also a Sidewalk sale on the same weekend but this year there was just a closed main street with no entertainment and much smaller crowds.  See the Links below to see what the Festival was like in 2019 and 2018.  The water level was not unusually high like it was in 2017 and 2019 but this just made the beach more inviting albeit empty. I visited the West Beach, the West Harbour, the Marina and the Main Beach… Read complete articleA Quiet Day on Cobourg’s Waterfront

Aquatic Safety – Take 3

John Draper

On September 23, 2019, a report was presented to Council called an “Aquatic Safety Audit” Report.  It was conducted by the Life Saving Society (LSS) at the request of the Community Services Division but immediately created concerns for Harbour users.  Several harbour users made presentations to Council with strong objections to parts of the “audit”; they basically said that the requirements were onerous and not necessary.   Council asked Director Dean Hustwick to write a detailed report responding to the concerns and he delivered that on 11 May 2020 – see links below for copies of the presentation and reports on the related Council meetings.  As a result, Council decided to refer the whole matter to the Parks and Recreation Advisory… Read complete articleAquatic Safety – Take 3

Few Visitors find Cobourg’s West Beach

John Draper

Saturday was hot and a great beach day but with Victoria Park Beach closed, where can beach people go?  On the July 1st holiday, many went to Port Hope; others went to Wicklow beach.  Reports from those beaches say that few followed social distancing rules so now Port Hope’s beaches are closed on weekends.  Given these reports, at about 3:00 pm on Saturday I checked out Cobourg’s West Beach.  It was not crowded and those that were there, were following the rules – see the Video below.  I didn’t ask people where they were from but I recognized one local couple.  There were no Police or ByLaw officers – but what ByLaws would they be enforcing?  There were dogs –… Read complete articleFew Visitors find Cobourg’s West Beach

Council Listens to Public and Keeps Beach Closed

John Draper

As many as 311 people watched the Council make a final decision about the Beach – this compares to a normal audience of around 20.  Mayor John Henderson said that in the past week it was the busiest he had ever been as Mayor with 320 phone calls and emails.  He and other councillors thanked the public for their engagement.  John estimated that 20% of those communicating with him wanted to limit the beach to just locals and 80% wanted the beach fully closed. He said that health and safety were more important than tourism or business.  Other councillors gave more detailed reasons and there seemed to be some nervousness about how the vote would go since a recorded vote… Read complete articleCouncil Listens to Public and Keeps Beach Closed

Staff report on how to Re-open Beach

John Draper

On June 22, Council asked staff for a report on how exactly the beach should be re-opened per their motion and they wanted it for their meeting on June 29.  Community Services Director Dean Hustwick has now delivered that – see link below.  The memo provides specifics on what would be done and how much it would cost.  As Dean has said to me in the past, Council makes decisions and staff implement them.  The “plan” does not have any real surprises and covers issues in the motion providing Council’s most recent direction.  More details are below but the short synopsis is that the beach would be limited to 1500 people, it would be first-come, first-served from Monday to Thursday… Read complete articleStaff report on how to Re-open Beach

Town Hall Meeting – mostly about the Beach

John Draper

Communication is good and in these difficult times the only way to have a Town Hall meeting is online.  Using Zoom, MPP David Piccini and Mayor John Henderson co-hosted a meeting tonight for Cobourg residents to ask anything about Covid-19.  I counted 20 questions and up to 71 participants and, no surprise, most questions (12) were about the Beach closure with the majority in favour of closure or if not, wanted assurance that social distancing could be enforced.  There were also questions about wearing of masks and a couple of other items – see below.  Mayor Henderson referred most questions to the decision making that will come out of the Council meeting on June 29.  I did not hear any… Read complete articleTown Hall Meeting – mostly about the Beach