Currently, Cobourg property owners are charged for water supply and a related sewer charge but there is no separate charge for stormwater drains – instead it’s paid for by property taxes.  But at Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, Consultant Peter Simcisko from Watson and Associates presented preliminary findings on a study of the status of stormwater management in Cobourg.  It seems that the Town has not been spending enough and some required infrastructure needs work.  Peter said that the Town is currently spending $410K per year but should be spending $1.59M.  He suggested that although this could be covered by an increase in the tax levy, there are other options such as charging property owners a fee based on… Read complete articleCobourg to Increase Stormwater Charge

In 2021, the Capital budget was $8.4M and the proposed Capital budget for 2022 is $15.2M.  The increase is mostly because of heavy expenditure on repairing the waterfront but a large number of smaller projects are also proposed.  Many of the smaller projects are of interest but others are routine and expected so not included in my list below.  A full list would have 62 projects.  Financing is provided by multiple sources: direct from the tax levy ($185K), reserves ($3.9M), grants ($1.9M), debentures ($8.2M) and other (the balance).  Debentures add to long term debt –  for 2022, the “long term debt charge” is $350K compared to $650K in 2021.  So although a lot of money is being spent on Capital… Read complete articleCapital Budget Requests for 2022

Council has started their review of requests by staff for the 2022 budget. The process started with submissions on Tuesday November 9 and continued on Wednesday November 10. CAO Tracey Vaughan kicked it off with a description of changes in the process: instead of each department formatting their own, all followed the same format. The budget was first described with a high level overview then each new hire and all major expenditure were justified with standard format sheets. Decisions will be made on November 25 and 26 but there are some things to know from these initial submissions. Most of the changes recommended by the Organization review are included in the budget request (more below) and the process is more oriented to… Read complete articleStaff Submissions for 2022 Operating Budget

The main item on the Agenda for Monday’s Special Council meeting was for citizens to convince Council that their request for a Community grant should be approved.  When  applications closed on October 31, 26 requests for a community Grant had been received – totalling $91,926.  Last year, 11 organizations received a total of $28,681 and Deputy Mayor Suzanne Séguin indicated that she expected that less than $30K should be approved this time.  All organizations were invited to present their case to Council but only 14 did so – the total of those presenting came to $42,076.  The full list is provided below.  In 2020, a total of $49,575 was approved for 26 organizations.  At the same meeting, Council also accepted input… Read complete articleResidents Request Grants for 2022

The relationship between the Art Gallery of Northumberland (AGN) and the Town of Cobourg has not always been happy nor well defined since the AGN was established in 1960.  The AGN occupies all of the third floor of the West Wing of Victoria Hall plus some storage locations on the second floor and the basement for a total floor area of 3,299 square feet.  Up until recently, they have been charged $45,000 per year for rent but then granted that money in each year’s budget.  Each year they also submit a request for about $170K more towards their budget of about $300K.  The process of coming to an agreement has not been well defined so at the next Committee of… Read complete articleAGN MOU, Lease and Budget

Tonight, October 28, Council had a special Committee of the Whole meeting to review the Organization changes proposed by the CAO, Tracey Vaughan.  It was preceded by a two hour closed session to discuss a subject that was not disclosed although there was talk of “Cost Savings”.  The general impression I got from the meeting was that Councillors were generally accepting the recommendations with no major objections.  In fact, Councillor Emily Chorley asked that since the By-Law Enforcement manager, the Grant Writer and the additional Building Official were all cost neutral, why not hire them sooner than July 1?  Councillor Brian Darling made a motion to that effect which passed.  Council then discussed each new position and this provided some… Read complete articleUpdate on Organization Review