By Cecilia Nasmith
The Rotary Club of Cobourg got council's permission to proceed with its COVID-sign fundraiser at this week's committee-of-the-whole meeting.
As a fundraiser – and to encourage people to get vaccinated – the club had proposed to sell these signs for people to display on their lawns. The size of the sign meets bylaw requirements. However, the bylaw limits the number of signs to 20 and the display period to 14 days.
The report to council from Chief Building Official Dave Hancock, however, did agree to the proposal put forth by COVID-19 Committee Chair Gord Ley, whose letter said their initial order would be 2,000 signs and that he was hoping they could be displayed through September (“It is estimated that we should all have had our second shot by the end of September,” his letter stated).
Each sign will be sold for $10, $4.42 of which is profit for the club. Proceeds will be used to offset costs related to the committee's work at the Cobourg Community Centre vaccination clinic.
“Currently our costs now exceed $8,000 and these have been financed by Brian and Kym Read and myself,” Ley stated.
His initial approach to council failed to describe the sign in any detail. This week, he provided a prototype, a yellow-and-white sign that says, “Beating COVID-19 one jab at at time/I got the shot/Thank you volunteers!” It also has a small picture of a needle and the Rotary emblem.
The motion by Councillor Adam Bureau grants this initiative the necessary bylaw exemption. The signs can remain in place through Oct. 1, Bureau's motion added, provided the club ensures the signs are removed from private properties by that date.
