Waterfront Festival Review Includes a Tribute
Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Last weekend’s annual Waterfront Festival is an appropriate time to remember Keith Richan, Councillor Forrest Rowden declared at council this week.
Rowden said his old friend, who had been on the Waterfront Festival committee for a full quarter-century, had passed away about a week ago at the age of 105 – he would have been 106 in February.
“He was a great asset to the town for all the things he did. He worked with Petra Hartwig on the Waterfront Trail and got a lot accomplished,” Rowden said.
Several of the councillors who had attended offered comments on what may have been one of the hottest Waterfront Festivals ever – and the first one where the midway was not sited on the east pier (now closed due to safety concerns). It was set up in Victoria Park instead, but no one reported having received noise complaints.
Councillor Suzanne Seguin believes attendance was down, and attributes it to the long hot days – though she said water was kept handy for anyone who looked as if they needed rehydration.
Councillor Debra McCarthy said she may have had the best seat in the house for the Canada Day parade, as she rode high in a fire departent bucket truck. The temperature may have been about 45 degrees up there, she said, but the sea of visitors was awe-inspiring.
“You just know they came to Cobourg for Canada Day,” McCarthy said.
“They’re standing and waving their flags – it just sent tingles up my spine.”
