By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
At this point, Associate Director of Housing and Homelessness Rebecca Snelgrove said at Wednesday’s meeting of Northumberland County council’s Social Services Committee, there is time to be prepared to offer a warming room for the 2026-2027 winter without an undue last-minute rush.
With options limited to county property under the Town of Cobourg’s Emergency Care Establishment Bylaw, Snelgrove presented a report that proposed purchasing or leasing a construction trailer to be set up on the lower parking lot of the old Golden Plough Lodge property. The plan is a larger trailer plus a separate one holding two washrooms. With preparation and set-up, an upset-limit budget of $350,000 is anticipated. A further $270,000 would be budgeted for staffing and $30,000 for food and programming expenses.
But an alternative came forward through Warden Bob Crate, who revived a previously discarded idea, the option known simply as Building 18.
This is a two-storey brick building that was part of Cobourg’s old Army Supply Depot and was later turned over to D’Arcy Place Developmental Centre for its use before it closed in 1996.
Located adjacent to the Cobourg Community Centre, its lower floor is leased by Northumberland Youth For Christ and the program that the Victorian Order of Nurses runs for seniors with cognitive impairments – two very vulnerable populations, it has been noted in prior debate.
Last year, Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland proposed using the building’s vacant second floor for a warming space, citing the relative lack of nearby residential development.
This week, Diane Manol addressed the county-council committee to urge a permanent strategy for the seasonal warming room.
She termed spending $350,000 on a trailer “another stop-gap temporary solution, similar to the council chambers suggestion last year, which evolved into the warming room in the board room next door.
“I don’t know what the answers are, but I know this is not the answer,” Manol declared.
“In the long term, you are right, and that we should look for something long-term – and I don’t think we have exhausted the possibilities on Building 18,” Crate said.
“I think in hindsight, looking at Building 18, it could be a long-term solution to our problem, and I am going to advocate that we take a second look.”
“I am not opposed to Building 18 as a long-term solution, if you find a long-term solution to move the two current vulnerable tenants,” Manol agreed.
Crate pointed out that the upstairs is already sprinklered, so potentially people could be allowed to sleep.
Accessibility is an issue, as the vacant space is on the second floor, but the warden argued that the money that might otherwise have created the construction-trailer solution could be put into preparing the Building 18 site.
“I understand our public works staff have had a walk-through to determine the amount of work that would be needed and whether it might be ready to go this winter,” Snelgrove said.
“There are other barriers that would increase the lead time, including negotiations with the town and all those different pieces needed to go through.”
Snelgrove acknowledged that the proposed trailer solution for next year’s warming room is a short-term solution – though it offered some prospects, at the end of the season, for recouping some of the cost from the sale of the trailer.
“The lead time for something like this is around five months, so we are already at a point where we need to move forward, if we are going to move forward with this, in order to have the site ready to go for this upcoming winter season,” she said.
Pointing out that the Cobourg Police Services building had only just now become accessible, Cleveland said there might be some way to grandfather or defer accessibility requirements for Building 18.
Chief Administrative Office Dan Borowec brought up the existing tenants, whose needs would also have to be accommodated. But for now, he said, “we need to take a good sound look at Building 18 and see what opportunities we can make happen there within a reasonable period of time.”
This would include a more fulsome debate with the entire county-council body at its June 17 meeting, he added. The committee subsequently passed a motion to identify this matter for further discussion at that meeting.
