Category: News 2017

Patrick Brown Starts Election Campaign in Port Hope

John Draper

A few days ago, Patrick Brown, the leader of the Provincial Conservatives, released his election platform and his first stop on his campaign tour was on Monday night in Port Hope.  Organized by the Progressive Conservative candidate, David Piccini, the Town Hall meeting was short, open to everyone and NOT a fundraiser.  The meeting was in the gym at the Port Hope High School and was well organized with a full house of about 150 people. Patrick spoke about his “People’s Guarantee” and kept the tone constructive with little of the negativity we associate with politicians.  His platform has five points and after explaining those in some detail, he opened up the floor for questions. Most of the questions were… Read complete articlePatrick Brown Starts Election Campaign in Port Hope

Murdoch Mysteries Filming back in Town

John Draper

On Monday this week, there were a whole lot of trucks and a pile of people in Town working on the filming for Murdoch Mysteries. There were two filming locations: the West Beach and Third Street adjacent to Victoria Hall.  The parking lot on Second Street was reserved for the filming team, Third Street was closed from King to Albert and the West Beach Boardwalk was “closed”. Residents were in fact allowed to go on the boardwalk but would be asked to wait and not intrude during actual filming.  Photos below give an idea of the activity.  Hopefully some of the businesses in Town benefited,  e.g. the restaurants.  West Beach filming featured a horse, an old car and a temporary… Read complete articleMurdoch Mysteries Filming back in Town

Northumberland Today to Shut Down

John Draper

A press release today reported that Torstar (owner of Northumberland News) and PostMedia (Owner of Northumberland Today) have swapped a collection of newspapers – mostly in Ontario. They also announced that most of the exchanged Newspapers will be shut down and although dates for ceasing publication are not clear, it was explicitly announced that Northumberland Today would be shut down “effective today”. In total, the closures will result in the loss of approximately 244 jobs. Since Northumberland News was not swapped and since it was not included in the papers to be shut down, it seems that the move is a way of consolidating in various markets so Cobourg will have only one newspaper and that will be Northumberland News…. Read complete articleNorthumberland Today to Shut Down

Cobourg Alive for Lights-on

John Draper

Cobourg kicked off the Christmas season on Friday by turning on 130,000 lights in Rotary Park and along the waterfront. Afterwards, there was a party on King Street with live music, vendors and Santa. Starting at 6:30 with a ceremony in front of Victoria Hall, a large crowd then moved to the waterfront and with a countdown, the lights were turned on at 7:00pm. To the surprise of many (including me), there was a short fireworks display to mark the occasion. Soon after there was a live band on King Street, horse drawn wagon rides through the display and a few vendors on Second Street – although they were not there earlier. See the photos below. The DBIA also produced… Read complete articleCobourg Alive for Lights-on

AGN Status Report

John Draper

With a Trillium grant of $32,000, the Art Gallery of Northumberland (AGN) hired Consultant Laridae Communications Inc to consult with the Northumberland community to “assess community interest in and support for AGN activities”.  The report was released to the public on November 22 and my short synopsis is that there is more work to be done. There are no answers provided – that will be the job of the board.  But there are some big problems and major questions to answer.  There is a shortage of funding and although there were 5100 gallery visitors in the past year (considered “solid”) and most people said that the gallery was a good thing, the current business model may well be not sustainable. … Read complete articleAGN Status Report

Entrepreneurs get Major Boost in Cobourg

John Draper

The status of the new Venture 13 project was presented to Cobourg Council last night.  Driven primarily by Northumberland Community Futures Development (NCFDC), it will provide support and facilities for new businesses needing space for offices and to build prototypes, to hold workshops, and learn from others.  The existing building 13 in Northam Industrial Park will be re-furbished to provide offices, a laboratory, workshops, a lecture hall and meeting rooms.  In addition to interim space for startups, it will house permanent staff for NCFDC, Cobourg’s Economic Development Department (EcDev) and the Northumberland Manufacturers Association (NMA) as well as providing facilities for Fleming College and Maker Lab.  All this will be on the ground floor with the second floor being used… Read complete articleEntrepreneurs get Major Boost in Cobourg

Santa Parade – 2017

John Draper

The forecast said rain or snow as well as cold and windy. They got it half right – the temperature was about 2 degrees and it was quite windy but there was no rain or snow. It didn’t stop the families coming out – there were lots of them lining the street. It seemed to me that the Parade was shorter this year although there were a good number of floats and bands. It is staged each year by the Lions club and it was almost cancelled but fortunately the Town is nominally managing the event so sponsors can get a tax receipt. The DBIA also helped so hopefully they got more business on King street today. The video below… Read complete articleSanta Parade – 2017

Cobourg and Union Agree on New Contract

John Draper

The Town of Cobourg and their union for inside and outside workers (C.U.P.E Local 25) have reached agreement for the three year period starting August 1, 2017.  The union ratified the agreement on November 6th and the Town is expected to pass a motion of agreement at the Council meeting on November 20th.  The Town’s target increase for total compensation costs was 1.5% per annum but the new agreement will cost an average of 1.71% per annum.  Health and dental benefits were extended in the previous agreement but there were no changes to these in the new one.  However, salaries will go up 1.9% in each year.  The minimum wage increase causes 0.35% of the annual increase. The negotiating team… Read complete articleCobourg and Union Agree on New Contract

Upgrade to Town’s Web site

John Draper

Cobourg’s Communication Officer, Ashley Purdy, made a presentation to Council on November 13 about changes to the Town’s web site.  In August 2017, Ashley issued a survey and there were 55 responses to the 17 questions and the changes are in direct response to this feedback.  The upgrade was scheduled to be launched today.  Most of the comments and changes related to site navigation – with a large site and a wide diversity of reasons to access the site, this is always a problem. The site relies on Search to a large extent and access to that is now made easier with the search box now very obvious.  But let’s look at Ashley’s presentation. Presentation Summary Extracts from Presentation – see link… Read complete articleUpgrade to Town’s Web site

Community Grants Presentations – for 2018

John Draper

Applications for Community Grants for inclusion in the 2018 budget closed on October 31.  The Town then called a Public Meeting at 6:00 pm on November 13 to allow the applicants an opportunity to sell their proposal to Council.  Only two applicants took advantage of this: Cycle Transitions and Marie Dressler Foundation.  Deputy Mayor John Henderson did not reveal how many applicants were received  – he wanted to vet them and then the applicants who had met all the conditions would be made public and included in budget deliberations.  The total amount of money available for 2018 Community Grants was set last year as the amount approved for grants in 2017 ($47,951)  plus a cost of living adjustment.   Grants Presentations… Read complete articleCommunity Grants Presentations – for 2018