Council receives Brookside suggestion for information purposes only
Collin Whitehouse
By Cecilia Nasmith
With Deputy Mayor Suzanne Seguin and Councillor Brian Darling voting in opposition, Cobourg council this week accepted a suggestion for the Brookside property for information purposes – that suggestion being the motion by the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee that the town seriously consider purchasing the heritage estate that was formerly a young offenders' detention facility.
Councillor Nicole Beatty reminded council that Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini is still entertaining input on what uses this property might be put to through his Imagine Brookside campaign.
“What does the committee want us to do?” Councillor Adam Bureau wondered.
“It says community project, but I am not understanding what would be the ultimate goal for doing this.”
“The issue was brought forward by one of our members, and it was shared by several members,” Councillor Emily Chorley said.
“It was simply that the town pursue any opportunity to obtain this property. They realize it's still in the early stages, and community consultation will have to continue to develop a comprehensive plan on what can be done with the property.
“Certainly one use could involve some parkland.”
“They can't be more definitive because MPP Piccini is still gathering the generalized input from the community at this point,” Mayor John Henderson said.
“It's a little vague – to acquire the Brookside property,” Seguin commented.
“We don't have a cost estimate. It's a pretty expensive property, and we don't have any idea from Mr. Piccini what they are intending. I don't know if we have first right of refusal on the property.
“It's a tough one to support until we know what the province wants to do with it and what the cost would be to the town.”
“Committee members felt it was important to express to council that they felt this is something we should be pursuing, recognizing the process for obtaining the Brookside Property is not a clear process at this time – they just felt it was important to make their views known,” Chorley responded.
“The key word I read is information purposes,” the mayor said,