By Cecilia Nasmith
Pickleball may have found a home at CCC
Potentially dedicating Sinclair Park's racquet courts exclusively to pickleball was an idea voted down Monday at Cobourg council's committee-of-the-whole meeting in favour of space at the Cobourg Community Centre.
An amendment to the motion by Deputy Mayor Nicole Beatty added the directive to the Community Services Division to draft a Memorandum of Understanding to determine the scope, costs and responsibilities of all parties for the future development of these pickleball courts.
The vote followed more than a year of work by the Cobourg Pickleball Club (and its growing membership) to find a permanent home. Club President Marilou Martin detailed the work they had done at Sinclair Park to ascertain its fitness for this purpose (which would then take the club out of Peter Delanty Park on Coverdale Street and leave its facilities exclusively for tennis players).
Martin said they had ascertained that the noise they made while the courts are being engaged in this sport is less than two decibels higher than the neighbourhood's ambient sound and more than 20 decibels less than when a train rumbles past.
The closest homes are about 984 feet from the court, she added, and the club's memberships would consider purchasing and installing sound barriers.
Martin was followed by Colin Powles who plays both tennis and pickleball. As a retired educator, he urged council to keep Sinclair as a multi-use park to encourage increased use (and enhanced fitness) of the community. With young people emerging from the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, he pointed out, easy access to a variety of active pursuits is vital to maintain.
Though staff recommendations in the agenda had also offered the option of designating Sinclair Park courts for pickleball and Peter Delanty Park courts for tennis, council got behind Councillor Miriam Mutton's motion to look at developing space at the CCC. Council can expect further information on this project, as well as the Memorandum of Understanding, in the form of a staff report at a future meeting.
Cobourg will hire another planner
Cobourg council voted at Monday's committee-of-the-whole meeting to fill the vacant position of Senior/Principal Planner (Development Review).
Director of Planning and Development Anne Taylor Scott said the position had been vacant since the end of February.
The annual salary of the position (including benefits) is up to $120,000 – which, Taylor Scott pointed out, should be offset to some degree by the post being vacant for the past few months (saving approximately $8,000 per month).
On the other hand, there is the new provincial planning legislation that forces municipalities to refund development fees when approvals are not granted within a prescribed time frame coinciding with the town being short-staffed. Also offsetting potential savings is the fact that the town has had to contract out some planning work just to keep on top of the demands.
“We have upwards of 30 new development applications this year alone, and 53 open and active development files,” Taylor Scott said.
While development is not likely to slow down, she noted several considerations such as recruitment and retention challenges that are not unique to Cobourg.
The motion passed by council envisions a hiring date of Oct. 1, “funded by any remaining unused salary dollars from the vacant planning position, with the balance funded by the Human Resources Personnel Contingency in the amount of $30,000 in addition to any associated onboarding costs.”
CPS protects and enriches the community
Enriching the community as well as keeping it safe, the work of the Cobourg Police Service in 2022 was the focus of a presentation to council's committee-of-the-whole meeting Monday.
Chief Paul VandeGraaf led off with a by-the numbers chart. The 11,287 calls for service, for example, were up 4.5% from the year before.
“That's dispatched calls for service,” VandeGraaf said - “it's probably double that in the non-registered interactions they have on a routine basis.”
They've had a 15% increase in calls specifically associated with mental health crises. They have responded to 255 motor-vehicle collisions and 44 break-and-enters (38 of them residential), and 89 suspected drug poisonings (four of them fatal).
“That does not include the fire services or paramedics – that's 89 cases where our officers responded first and administered Naloxone,” the chief added.
The force consists of 118 staff members, 35% of whom are sworn members and the remainder civilians. The department's $9,348,283 budget included a 2.8% levy increase, with 28.9% of the amount taken care of by recoveries, grants and transfers.
There's a downward trend in use-of-force incidents, with no such recourse required in more than 99% of recorded interactions.
Body-worn cameras had an aggressive roll-out that year, VandeGraaf said, completed within six months for all front-line officers and special constables.
“Our membership have adopted this new technology with zero resistance,” he said proudly - “all funded through the revenue from corporate services and not through tax revenue.”
Their volunteer corps gave the equivalent (in terms of hours ) of two full-time paid staff over the year, and one of their initiatives was the monthly Cram-A-Cruiser events for Fare Share Northumberland Food Banks. In 2022, they collected 23,360 lb. of food and $23,632 in donations for Fare Share.
The Cobourg Police Service solves more than 3/4 of all offences reported, and are proud of their collaborative work with Cornerstone Family Violence Prevention Centre.
“We know our team make it approachable for victims of sexual violence to report that without fear of judgment and the understanding that it's a victim-centred approach, and will only proceed to court when it's right for them,” the chief said.
It was a year when police seized drugs with an estimated street value of more than $131,00, plus more than $12,000 in Canadian currency and a loaded firearms. Among the drugs was 138.78 grams of fentanyl that could potentially have fueled more than 2,200 lethal doses. There were also 153.03 grams of crystal meth, 433.62 grams of cocaine and 88.86 grams of crack cocaine.
Their V13 Policetech Accelerator program celebrates and enables innovation, like their role in the Facial Recognition Technology Research Partnership (in collaboration with Ontario Tech University and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association). And their Pitch To The Chief events tap the talents of local young people as well as professionals.
When it comes to that portion of the population that accounts for their calls, he said, “we are dealing with 3% of the population.
“Overall, our town is very safe – look at the amount of interactions, the low rate of violent crime,” VandeGraaf said.
And outreach will continue to be important, he added, citing their active role in this year's Northumberland United Way Stuff The Bus campaign.
United Way had fallen short of their goal of 1,200 backpacks in the 2022 campaign, and appealed to the police to help make this year a success with their initiative of providing backpacks stuffed with school supplies for children whose parents might have found such an expense too much of a challenge.
The campaign was launched a few weeks ago, and the bus was considered stuffed by Aug. 8.
“But it's still not too late to reach out to Northumberland United Way or Staples and find out how you can get a backpack,” he said.
“If we can fix the literacy rate, if we can get kids to stay in school, we will fix crime. We need to make them successful and, for some, that's having a backpack on Day One and not feeling like an outsider.”
