Downtown building gets a new purpose

By Cecilia Nasmith

Cobourg council reacted with keen interest Wednesday to a report on the Albert Street washroom building that suggests a completely new use for the space.

The report from Director of Community Services Lacricia Turner and Municipal Clerk Brent Larmer put forth several options for the building, now that it's no longer needed for the adjacent ice-skating rink – and their recommended option was to keep it open as a staffed Tourism and Customer Service Hub.

The report noted that this use “maintains the benefits of security while adding a stronger customer service and tourism focus to the site.”

“The plan is, in consultation with our Manager of Tourism, to have a tourism staff member and tourism student ambassador in this space from May until October, and then convert this space back to the warming area that it was, because we know that was really popular with the community for skating,” Turner said.

“This option will be better for the community for the reasons which are outlined in the report.”

The staff would offer visitor assistance and way-finding assistance, promotion of local attractions, events and businesses, and general customer service. It would operate in co-ordination with existing tourism locations, including the beach information kiosk and marina kiosk.

It is anticipated May hours would be Monday through Saturday, supporting increased activity and the Farmers' Market. It would move to seven days a week June through August. And September and October hours would be evaluated based on demand and available resources.

And of course, the washrooms would be open.

“I really enjoyed reading this,” Mayor Lucas Cleveland commented.

“The report was exceptionally well written.”

The mayor went on to say that “we live in the 2020 reality, and the community, where there is an issue in our streets with drug use.

“This is a way to offer residents a service to increase our customer relations, to create a better corporate footprint in the community, while also allowing security and operations a presence.”