The incoming Cobourg Police Chief said the holiday weekend with the Sandcastle Festival and Sidewalk Sale was “amazing” but there were also concerns for emergency services with the amount of people.
“That weekend was wild,” said incoming Chief Paul VandeGraaf referring to the August 3, August 4, 2019 weekend.
“Kudos to the Town of Cobourg for organizing an amazing event with the Sandcastle Festival and the Sidewalk Sale.”
VandeGraaf was at the Sidewalk Sale and along the beach for the Sandcastle Festival on Saturday.
“I’ve never seen a group of people that were so happy.”
But with the thousands of people that were on the beach, there were also a number of by-law infractions.
“I’ll be honest, it was so crowded with so many tents. I saw closed in tents – way to many tents. I saw coolers down there, but unless you have reasonable grounds to have somebody open your cooler, you just can’t start ripping coolers open.”
VandeGraaf heard reports about lots of alcohol on the beach, but he personally didn’t see any people drinking.
“There was a lot of smoking on the beach I know that. I don’t think there was any barbeques because I don’t think there was any room.
VandeGraaf doesn’t believe there were any alcohol related charges for the weekend.
“I think collectively, fire, ems and the town we have to look at our by-laws and try to come up with new solutions.”
Cobourg Police had extra officers and special constables for the weekend, but VandeGraaf said they will be “dissecting” to see what can be done to improve.
“Not to inhibit the event, but to make the event as safe as it is great.”
“Internally we’re looking at alternatives for Sandcastle Festival weekend as far as the amount of people that can be off – annual leave, we’re going to work with the police association to talk with solutions around that. It might be as simple as having six people on overtime.”
With the thousands of people downtown and along the beach, traffic was a problem and whether emergency vehicles could get through quickly.
VandeGraaf is hoping to have a meeting with other emergency services (fire and paramedics) and town staff over the winter months to be ready for next year.
“We have to look at the movement of people and the movement of emergency vehicles and start to plan.”
For the amount of people in Cobourg over the holiday weekend, VandeGraaf said the complaints were “minimal.”
“But it’s always about being better and I see room for improvement.”
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
