Waiting

Husbands make great journalists. We are used to waiting. A lot.

YMCA free swim

Coming to the YMCA to swim is fantastic. My daughter and her friend are having a great time.
It is unfortunate to see how much the Y charges to get in. It was nearly $15 for two children and one adult. It is less than a movienbut still seems like a lot. There are many who cannot affrd this. A free swim, especiallly during the holidays would be an excellent idea. Tim Horton's sponsors a free skate at the arena. But not everyone skates. It would be a good thing if some other business did the same for swimming.

Shopping Hell

The modern version of the medieval Catholic church is shopping. The mall is the equivalent of a church where consumer worship the doctrine of capitalism. To sit and wait is hell or maybe it is purgatory.

Youth

It is amazing to hear Councillor Pam Jackson outline her concerns about young peope regarding the use of a laneway, suggesting they will go there to use drugs and have sex.
This is the same woman who gushed enthuiastically about youth involvement in municipal politics during the last election.
It should not be a surprise. Let's hope nobody forgets this come next election. Youth seem to be important when it is time to win votes. The hypocracy here tonight is shameful.

Half in the heritage lands

Only half the property is in heritage area,making the parking lot within the heritage zone. The building is not.

Planning

Several developments were moved forward as council gave approvals to key developments including a new Shopper's Drug Mart.

No heritage facade

The front of a new Shopper's Drug Mart will not meet the town's heritage bylaws, despite more than a $1 million rennovation.

More on the laneway

More information was presented as landscape architect Miriam Mutton raised concerns over a memo being presented to council tonight.
Working her way through the memo's content, she expressed serious concern over the lack of public information.
She is calling on council to be more open.

Old Cobourg Star building gets go ahead

A proposal to develop the former newspaper building at 415 King St. W. was given approval.

Second presentation

A double-barrel attack hammered Cobourg council Monday night as a second resident from the town's east end let loose on politicians regarding the Brook road laneway.

Responding

Town planner Glenn Mcglashon confirmed the details of a memo.

Looking your critics in the eye

Councillors are barely able to look a presenter in the eye. Deputy Mayor Spooer is the only person looking at Debra Panko while she makes a presentation about a laneway off Brook Road. The rest read along with her text handouts of her presentation. Very impersonal. Her damning condemnation of a deal between council and a developer is stinging and it appears they are avoiding her eyes. I say, look at her and face the music.

Brook Road lane

Concerns continue to be raised over a laneway off Brook Road, as one citizen made a case to revisit a deal between the town, council and a local landscape architect.
Several concerns were raised, in particular by Debra Panko, of Coverdale Avenue, as she blasted council tonight for failing to live up to its promise to save the heritage lane.

Art Gallery proposal

A proposal to create a special forum as an arts and culture clearing house to enhance communication and public awareness for Northumberland County.

The response is tremendous, said Mary Simpson, feasibility project coordinator, adding about 100 groups and councils are already on board.

A newsletter and web site will be developed in an effort to publicize event and help organizations avoid double bookings.

Building offer for cops

In an effort to find the Cobourg police a new home, a local real estate agent made a pitch to convert a new medical centre into a police station.
The under-utilized medical centre with more than half the spaces in the building empty, argued the police could move into this available location at 316 King St. E.
The building, constructed less than five years ago, is a white elephant, never achieving full occupancy.
Councillor Pam Jackson gave her support.
Councillor Lloyd Williams, a member of the police services board, said the police board took a tour of the building recently. He worked hard to nix the idea.

Lion and Lioness honoured

Four members of the Cobourg Lions and Lioness Club are donating a pavillion to be built in Victoria Park in time for next summer.

Port Hope flag

Mayor Peter Delanty announces the flying the Port Hope flag as part of a bet with the town over a hockey game.

Public participation

There are about 20 people attending tonight's meeting.

Starting the meeting

Waiting. It is the one thing journalists do. A lot. The meeting will start shortly. There are four delegations and quite a lot of business.

Closed door meeting

Unlike previous councils, this one starts with the closed door session. This makes it very hard to tell what is discussed behind closed doors. When a closed door session is held at the end the meeting, councillors must pass all motions in an open session following it. This makes it easy to tell what was discussed. This new system doesn't make it very transparent.

Library time

My daughter, Emily, is busy on a computer in the children's section at the Cobourg library. She is palying an interactive game on the TVO Kids web site, a site she really loves.
The recent controversy over the viewing of pornography using library computers has caused a real conflict within me. The computers in the chdren's section are heavily controllednwhile tha adult computers upstairs are not.
A 12-year old boy and his mother discovered a man viewing porn on one of the adult computers. The mother complained. The librarian did not stop him. Instead, she put up a screen and he kept viewing.
As a journalist, academicn and writer, the sanctity of freedom of expression is sacred. But, as a father of an eight-year old girl I want v ery tough controls.

Council mtg

I will be attending a Cobourg council meeting tonight at 7 p.m.

Trying different things

As a means of testing our system, I am posting from my laptop. Let's see if
this works?

Technical difficulties

The emails are not posting today. It does not work on any of our sites, so I have to believe it is something wrong with Blogger.com. I am still going to the meeting. If you want to email me directtly, use the link on this site. I want to see how difficult it is to write a story on the fly at a meeting with a Blackberry.

Sorry.

Timing

The timing of posts is a critical factor. It appears the email posts are slower to get posted on the site, while the posts done in the system, using the interface are quicker. It is not clear why it takes so long. It will hamper our efforts to be timely, but I wonder if there wouldn't be a serious problem if we were the sole users. In otherwords, we are competiting in a line up of posted material that sits on Blogger.com's server and it posts in order or something. I am not sure.

Sitting with Milne

Following a short walk with my good friend Milne, we chat about Blackberry.

Easy to do, but tough to type

This is amazing technology. It is taking some time to get used to thumb typing. But it is coming along. Also, the editing function on suxh a small screen is difficult, too. It is only a matter of time, though. This I'd quite wonderful.

First day of Christmas break

It is a typical day, as far as the first day of a Christmas break goes. Spent this morning shopping for groceriies. What would Christmas be without lots of food. +t is hard to imagine how the tradition of eating so much began. Maybe it started with hunting in the .Middle Ages, when the killing of a deer meant you could eat a lot of meat, so everyone share.

Getting started

:Here we go. This is my first post using this new tehnoloy. Typing with one's thumbs is a huge challenge.