By Cecilia Nasmith
Cobourg Councillor Nicole Beatty has put forward a notice of motion at council regarding the future of Brookside Youth Centre.
A former heritage home on King Street East that was taken over as a juvenile detention centre, it was eventually forced to add a couple of dormitories on its grounds to accommodate young offenders (with a very tall fence erected for confinement purposes).
In recent years, those dormitories have all but emptied, as the facility has long been occupied at a greatly reduced occupancy that (by some accounts) approaches a census of extremely low double digits (or even fewer).
And Beatty's motion points out that Cobourg taxpayers are asking questions about the situation.
Her notice of motion calls on the town to contact the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services and the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services to ask them to provide council with an update on the status of the facility, “including options for initiating the disposition of the buildings and/or lands in which the Centre occupies.”
The motion also calls for copies of the resolution to be forwarded to Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini, the County of Northumberland and the Honourable Todd Smith, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.
