Back to the Council watch

Be careful for what you wish: sometimes you get it at your own peril. Cobourg has only been putting up the barebones agenda for years now. But as a result of a request for info, Yep I'm to blame, as of this week the agenda has been put up as a package and includes background material. And it is huge - 226 pages long. But as we shall discover, after Monday's meeting, that package will soon be slashed in half.

One of the items to be discussed is the prospect of the Town throwing bucket loads of money at its Lawyer - Wayne Fairbrother, in an OMB appeal. Dave Tredree, of Radio Shack fame, owns a parcel of prime development land just north of the Hwy 45 ramp on Division St/Hwy 45. He has struggled to get development status for ten or more years at an untold cost, fighting bureaucratic battles and the neighbours protests. Finally just when has managed to get a zoning change favourable to him the Town of Cobourg appeals the decision to adopt the zoning bylaw to the OMB.

So what's the problem? The Town says it is only following policy by objecting to any large scale commercial development on its borders. This development may in the future demand to be serviced by Cobourg. Hamilton Twp, in its defence, says that it is zoning based on the Official Plan. The OP says that land can be developed as "Hamlet Commercial" and only uses defined in the approved list can go ahead. The latest salvo coming from Cobourg says that the way the bylaw is written any of Cobourg's future objections to large scale development taking place on the site will not be allowed, because the bylaw provisions relating to the control of development are unenforcable and denies any opportunity for Cobourg's interests to be discussed.

My take on the business is that this a move by some Cobourg pols (read the Mayor) to protect the Best Western (the Wilcox boys) from competition in the highly competitive roadside Inn business. 401 interchanges are festooned with Holiday Inn Expresses and their ilk, but not in this area. This patch of land is perfect for such a deal. But not in Cobourg, we as taxpayers are going to spend, if the motion to appeal to the OMB goes ahead, piles of money on the Quixotic adventure of trying to stop natural competition.

Tucked away in the agenda is a motion to delegate Heritage applications to the Heritage Planner and his department. This will reduce the wait time for somebody who wishes to do things to a designated property from one week to two days. In this week's agenda of the 246 pages 119 are devoted to this topic. Thus in one fell swoop the Councillors have reduced their legislative workload considerably. As an observer, it will be interesting just to see what items are now used as filler in the agenda to compensate. Some weeks the only thing to discuss has been items in this category.

In another vein, here is a copy of a letter sent to NToday. It desensationalises the topic of "Garbage in the Park"
Let's inject some realism into the debate about the cost and pain of weekend visitors to the Park and beach. A story published recently mentioned the cost of taking away the garbage bags from the Park after the Ribfest. I would congratulate the weekenders for bagging 1000 bags of garbage, could you imagine that stuff strewn around instead of neatly bagged? And as to the cost of $3000 that is an extrapolation of household bag costs. The Town could never cost the amount properly because although 1000 bags were collected, this weekend (a lot less will be collected next weekend) they go into a transfer bin at the yard and get hauled away at a cost per tonne. The Town schedules two crews every weekend to work a total of fourteen hours and finishes at 11pm. So to sensationalise the story by saying that crews worked until 11pm to pick up the garbage is not untrue but they do that each and every weekend of the summer. If there is anything to be gained in this debate it is not to blame the weekenders for all the trash but to investigate why there are not enough garbage bins, for as we know they are being used. Let's ask how to let all make use of this resource and if it is to be rationed because of demand why not look at the space the events take and work from there

Only the biggie this weekend for the Lib-noms, perhaps they were all eaten out and satiated after last weeks piggin' out? But apparently not as the Big Event was Lou Rinaldi's BBQ, at the Brighton Speedway. No hand went unshaken and no back was not slapped, and all will pretend to play nice. However mark your calendars for the one and only showcase event of the campaign - the All-Candidates meeting at the Alderville Community Centre next Sunday from 2-5pm.

Finally a Pol who is worth listening to

As you should know some extremists have been trying to distort the public meetings that Pols are using to explain proposed changes to health care in the US. As a result of the venom and hate being spewed at Pols, some have refused to meet with the public and others have resorted to electronic messaging avoiding the nasty people. BUT one brave soul has refused to cave, and here is a video of Barney Frank answering a stupid question.

Yesterday's comment was written in such a way that it implied, for some, that only the Bay St residents are looking for sympathy and action about the weekend beach invaders and the plethora of events in the Park. As pointed out to me the problem is not confined to Bay St but all of the South East side of Town, and when the music starts nobody south of Elgin is immune. The single point here is that we all have a problem and somebody should be leading the charge to fix it.
And to the person who asked "How do we know they are not towing from the Pier?" Because I heard it from the enforcement person myself.

I have admired this work for months now. Bob Owen, of "Cramahe Now" is a great example of 'hyperlocal news' - stories that the others don't do because of corporate centralisation, but of vital importance to his readers. The latest story is a prime example of just that. Read it here.

It only took two sunny weekends....

Summer has come to Cobourg and the event season is in full bloom. Rotary Club inspired events - the Waterfront Festival and the Ribfest have brought to the surface the letters to the editor that have been lying in wait all season. Predictable problems: too many people, too much garbage, too much parking not enough washrooms for people who prefer to use private bushes and public sand. An editorial in NToday decries the situation, presumably because this is placed in the prime editorial spot as opposed to the opinion slots this is official newspaper policy. A story that told of Town workers picking up mounds of garbage bags, and quoted the Parks Supervisor as saying, "We have staff working till 11pm on Sunday night". This gives the impression that working until 11pm on Sunday to pick up garbage is unusual.

In an interview today, Director of Public Works, Stephen Peacock told me that the Town schedules full crews and full shifts of 14 hours a day, as a matter of course and that this weekend was just normal cleanup.
Whenever Clubs and Organisations ask for permission to hold events in the Park they have to sign a contribution agreement. Cobourg in its wisdom has always, in its negotiations conducted by Lara Scott, been scrupulous in making eventholders take their own garbage away, and to provide extra toilet facilities- at their cost and to conform with many other conditions that cost money that the Town might have had to pay. In order to help defray the cost of cleanup, with full shifts and full crews the parking revenue, from those meters, has been dedicated to that cost. So the Town has been trying hard to offset the burden of providing public space to private money raising events.

If there is a problem it could be put down to some events being too big for the Park, was it really necessary to have a Midway in the spot that regular park users inhabit? Another problem is that the Town may have not made any effort to accommodate the park users because they only come on weekends and don't go uptown and spend money? An excellent suggestion has been made to fence off the Beach and Park and charge out of Towners for the privilege of using the beach. But then we get into the problem of assuming that it's only visitors who deposit garbage and nothing else. In one letter published today the writer told of seeing Cobourgers dumping household bags by a Park bin. We know this happens downtown why wouldn't it happen in the Park. It's a collective problem and as a Town we must solve it. But to assume that it's only the poor (people needing sympathy not the affluent) folk on Bay St who suffer is wrong.

Just let me finish this by telling the world that a day after the Mayor received a letter from an grieved motorist who had been towed for overstaying a spot on the Pier, two weeks ago, an Executive Order was issued - "No more towing from overstays on the Pier" So how do we fulfill the demand for more enforcement of when enforceement of existing laws is over-ridden because of adverse publicity?

This image is provided by W Keeler and shows the damage done to the park by one of the Ribbers. Just how will the park will recover from this damage in this heat? We still haven't devised a way for compensation for such ecological damage - perhaps we should?

The bottom line is that the problem of problems in the Park is, and always will be, an ongoing one that everyone will have to help solve.

Back to the grindstone

Ribfest, was it good for you? The weather cooperated, outsiders came to Town and people gorged, music played (more on that later) and the Rotary Club expanded its coffers. Obviously a success! Some questions that came to me in conversation or email that people in authority should answer, as they are being asked by people in the Donut shop: one, is it about time to revisit the noise bylaw? Music in the Park is a subjective thing based on genre. But one thing we can agree on is that when the music is electronic it is very loud. Noise regulation seems to kick in after 11pm and upon complaint, but if the noise bylaw is based on "the disturbance to one's quality of life" then an argument can be made to tone it down before that time too. When a band in Vic Park can be heard at Elgin St. surely it is a bit too loud no matter what time of day it is? Another point to be made is that if Council is crying the blues about cleanup costs and mess then I wonder if, as well as dinging visitors by making them pay for parking, the vendors inside the park, on these occasions, shouldn't have to buy "Itinerant Traders' Licenses" to sell their wares?

Much discussion has taken place, especially by the idiots who drive old clunkers, about the nearly one hundred cars stopped and examined for mechanical defects last Friday. 22 cars were pulled off the road and warnings issued. But more importantly to those people who smoke the "indian ciggies" 8 warnings were issued to people who were seen to be in possession of them. Being told, "You can only smoke them on the reserve" may not seem like much of a warning but the $500 fine the next time you are found with them may deter a few from buying. After all when the "Revenooers" get on a kick like this expect a lot of attention to be paid to miscreants.

Expect the local Lib nominees to be a little fatter this morning. Eating and chatting all weekend adds on the pounds. Ribfest on Saturday and the Long lunch on Sunday and for CH, tonight little munchies at Tom Behan's house. Still it is only for a couple of weeks until the Party HQ drops the rope and allows nomination meetings to be set up. The next big event will be the All-Candidates meeting in Alderville August 30th, 2-5pm. Rumours and backbiting are a way of life in these kinds of contests, hence the little contretemps with Peter Delanty and who he supporting, with Kim Rudd sandbagged by his endorsement of Herrington. Today Delanty is covering all his bases by saying that he will support Rudd - if she wins!
But one of the wildest I have heard is that Herrington may only be in it to solidify her position as Lou Rinaldi's replacement in the next Provincial race. Let's face it if I were a Lib delegate I would be looking at these nominees with the end game in place - "Who will be the candidate in the election after this one," as the likelihood of the nominee actually winning this time is remote? An 11,000 vote deficit is a big gap to jump. So who of the three nominees will stay in if they lose?

Do we have two classes of citizenship? This would be the biggest election issue ever, if I was in the Lib backroom. With two cases of non-white citizens being screwed over in foreign countries and the lack of government support in helping them one can make a big case for two classes of citizens being given two kinds of Harper help. Just look at the efforts Norlock and Macklin went to to help Brenda Martin and then look at the appalling resistance to help offered to the woman in Kenya. If the Libs wanted to get their "immigrant vote" back from the grasping clutches of Jason Kenney's coercion machine then this issue is it.

We interrupt your lunch to bring you a nominee!

This weekend is a feast for gourmands as opposed to gourmets: Ribfest in Cobourg on Saturday and the Long Lunch on Sunday in Warkworth. BUT beware you may be interrupted in your greasy recreation by the possibility of Nominees attempting to get your vote - only if you are a Liberal the rest will be spoken to but dismissed as a waste of time.
Pols attending local functions is an old trick, which in these days of voter cynicism may backfire simply because Pols are universally disliked by the hoi-polloi. But not to be deterred Hizzoner Peter Delanty will be introducing Chris Herrington to all of his Rotary friends, which will be a total waste of time because the number of Liberals that belong to the Cobourg Rotary Club can be counted on two hands, and maybe a couple of toes. The rest of us will fail to notice the well dressed female hanging onto every one of PD's words Peter does tend to suck up surrounding air.
Both Kim Rudd and CH have announced plans to be at the event in Cobourg so they will be looking for you.

After being reminded in no uncertain terms I should be checking the nominees websites, as opposed to them sending out 'pressers' and reminders to the lazy media, I checked the sites this morning for events on the weekend. Kim R has no dates past Saturday on her calendar,, but she will be at the Ribfest, perhaps she is taking the day off? CH and Peter (her hubby not Delanty?) are taking in the Long Lunch at Warkworth and Andrew M is going to a "Politics, Tea and Coffee" in Trenton Saturday and on Sunday he, presumably because the email sent to announce the agenda says, "My family will also be in Warkworth on Sunday to..." is also going with his family. So folks be prepared to see entourages of handshakers working the tables.

Kudos to the Editor of the NNews - Dwight Irwin, when confronted with the dilemma of only finding one photo that related to the Community Centre issue, that of Cobourg Pols, when he really wanted a pic with a Y connection to add colour to a lead story, he ran with it. but later found a more suitable one. After mild criticism and a suggestion that by running the pic it could be inferred that the Town had a part in the story, which it didn't, he dug deeper and found a pic with a purely Y base to it - good for him.

A local view of the Frink situation

All the credit for this goes to Mr W Keeler of Cobourg

This project is still not clear to the public

The YMCA is reported to be still waiting for a reply to its application, story here for funding for a 9.9 million dollar project that would see an aquatic centre places side by side to the new Community Centre. The linkage between the Y and the Town's project is not clear, the finances and cost benefits and the future operating costs are murky.
If the Y gets a successful answer then presumably they will have to fund raise for their $3.3 million contribution. Put that on top of the $2.7 million that the Town is looking for and Cobourgers will be asked to raise $6.0 million dollars in eighteen months or risk raising more to cover bridge financing costs. Add to that the loss of revenue that the Town could face if the land that the Y wants to build on is handed over for nothing not to mention the money that is now given to the Y to sustain the present building, which may become surplus.
In these pages there has been a history of non-support for the Y, especially about the aquatic centre and we believe that is reflective of some public opinion. The Y has a long way to go to persuade some people that the fees to use the present facilities are not expensive and also the subsidy programme doesn't work as well as it should for lower income people. Thereby creating the impression that the Y is a private club. One of the reasons that the Community Centre will work is that it is not a private club that will be expensive to use, or so people believe.
Council should come clean with this linkage and explain just how much it is costing Cobourg to link with the Y and the reason for doing so. And if there is any hint of public money or assets being handed over at less than market cost we should know about it as taxpayers.
Incidentally in the story from the Northumberland News the headline is matched to a picture of the Mayor and Chair of the Community Centre project committee looking at the land to be used by the Town - nothing to do with the Y story! The implication here is that the Y has Town support. If this is the case the writer should have have explored the connection or dismissed it as speculative. Either way the picture lends weight to the suggestion that the Town is up to something.

amendment to the pic situation My friend D Irwin (editor of the Northumberland News) has made the comment that this pic was taken from the library to illustrate the story. Problem is, and I understand why that pic was used, that inferences can be drawn from the fact that it's a pic of the Town in a story about the Y.

I wonder how Kim and Andrew feel now?

Yesterday the Herrington campaign issued a glitzy pdf newsrelease which contained this image of a paragraph. Peter Delanty was endorsing Christine Herrington! Did he appear at the recent meetings, that the other candidates put on, to put in an appearance or to inwardly smirk about his choice? The perception of power converging to keep power.
Just look at who are are the key endorsements and you will understand that certain people who have held municipal office obviously think that they are important enough to try to influence others. Hasbeen Forrest Rowden - a former Mayor of Hamilton Twp, who remembers him today? A still serving Warden of Prince Edward County County, who knows him in NQW? Also listed on the team is Don Dudley from Warkworth, a Don Quixote of Liberal politics, it will be interesting to see if any of these lightweights can pull any weight.

On the other hand will Kim keep this pic, really bad body language here, up on her site now?
BTW Kim's number is now 287

You want a real Delanty smile here try this

Just imagine this woman, if she wins sitting, (story here) beside Bill Murdoch and Randy Hillier at Queen's Park!!

A stratagem of confusion

As of 7am this morning this was the logo displayed on Kim Rudd's website. Contacting a member of the team I was told that this was the number of "new supporters" that Kim has signed up. But is it real or is it just a strategy designed to scare off the other sides? Apparently this kind of thing hasn't been done before as it could be dangerous if expectations are unmet and also because it may tip off the others, there are only so many "new supporters" around and everyone is chasing them.

At the beginning of the campaign, so I have been told, the Riding membership was at about 1400. Now how many of the 1400 were paid-up and how many were lapsed but still on the rolls is unknown to us, but I know from other political parties members are kept on the lists for at least four years before being removed. So to say we have 1400 members may only be half true. But back to the "New supporters" (NS) and that definition. We can assume that a paid up member is an "old supporter" therefore new signups are NS, but lapsed members are also counted as NS. Do we count commitments made by people contacted on the phone or people being spoken to at wine and cheese parties as NS? And really how much do we want to tell the other side? Only a truly naive campaign would give away its numbers before the nomination meeting! An experienced campaign team would want to come into a nomination with a hundred or so signed memberships not previously declared. At the last big Liberal nomination nobody divulged numbers and so it wasn't until the day of the meeting anybody knew what anybody else had.

But back to the present. If one assumes (very dangerous) that about a thousand people will turn up to vote the winner would need would need about 600 signed members to feel confident. Kim Rudd is at 241 new ones, some old ones and a long way to go for the 600.

Still on Liberal affairs. A comment came in last night and was buried about three pages down so I copied it and repeat it here because it is timely
"It is about a week into the campaign for Chris Herrington and I hear that the memberships are rolling in across the riding. People know a winner and she has won as a councillor and twice as mayor...the other two have NO political experience at all!
Fancy brochures and get-to-gethers with out of area props should be easily seen as a weak way of saying I have the local Liberal support"

I was sent the Herrington website URL "www.chrisherrington.ca", a couple of days back and posted it, and an email was sent asking for a list of events that CH was planning - yet to hear anything back. So if anybody on the CH team reads this we would like to know what you are up to apart from a flashy website!

What do the Gen Xers and Gen Yers think about politics?

As a result of observing many Town Hall meetings and two recent nomination get togethers I am appalled at the lack of response to politics by anybody other than the old! Political opinions are like stinky feet: everybody has them and some smell worse than others. Consequently all should participate in Civics, but don't. Commenting on the age of the audience of political events is a dangerous thing as one is likely to offend those who think they are ageless and also those who usually don't mingle with older folk easily. But one cannot avoid the topic - it is rare to find a person of younger-middle age at any of these events. They are are elsewhere and those in that demographic will readily tell you that they don't have time, or the inclination to get involved. A lot of sympathy goes to the candidates for the Liberal nomination, who are running around trying to cater to their grandparents' generation - a difficult task. It is tough for callow youth to understand the generational difference and I wish them well, although the phrase, "Don't teach your father how to procreate" comes to mind.
It is telling, that in this age of modern politics, Andrew McFadyen has a Marketing Director on his campaign team. This guy looks about twenty five years old and I am sure that he has degrees coming out of his ying-yang and is eminently qualified to sell soap, but what will he be doing to encourage his generation to get involved in politics?
I am young enough, if I live as long as the National average, to see this question answered - what will the political participant of the future look like when the present political activists, whose average age appears to be seventy three are gone?