Open letter to Cobourg Town Council

August 26, 2012

Dear Mayor and Town Councillors

Last week I left a memory stick at the Town Hall containing photos and a five minute video clip pertaining to Ribfest in Victoria Park. I requested that it be given to Councillor Larry Sherwin and that he, in turn, forward it to the town arborist.

The photos and video display how heavy vehicles run over the roots of the park’s cottonwood trees, and park their weight on top of these same roots, for five days, from set up to take down.. The roots are shallow, that is to say, they run along just inches below the surface, and in some instances, the roots are visible on the surface.

The photos will also show that a number of these roots, visible on the surface, had been spray painted with florescent orange paint. Only the roots had been painted. That did not diminish the traffic of heavy vehicles running over them.

Victoria Park lost six mature trees so far this year -- and a sapling recently died. Two were brought down by wind damage, two by Dutch Elm disease, two were brought down by other unhealthy factors.

Those cottonwoods have been providing canopy services for generations. Their height and maturity lend an ambience of grandeur to Victoria Park. I would appreciate Town Council considering the notion of a protective perimeter around those trees.

Victoria Park is not just any Cobourg park. It is smack in the middle of the heritage district. Those cottonwoods are living heritage. 

Extending the life span of those cottonwoods is the goal. Any activity that jeopardizes that life expectancy should be prohibited. Please obtain expert advice about this concern.

Secondly

The bylaws concerning Victoria Park includes the following under the heading Organized Gathering and Picnics, "5.3(b) While in a park, no person shall: (b) Have a picnic within a twenty (20) metre radius of a Cenotaph of Remembrance."

I measured the distance from the main pillar of the Cenotaph of Remembrance to the fence. It was 6.5 metres. The grease pit cookers are parked within that 20 meter radius. That bylaw does not concern itself with any health or safety issue, which is the normal motivation that creates bylaws. The above bylaw was created to respect and honour the Cenotaph of Remembrance.

Question: When issuing a permit to an organization to hold an organized gathering where food is cooked and eaten, is bylaw 5.3(b) suspended? If it is not suspended, will it be enforced in the future?

All good things

Wally Keeler

Northumberland Ribfest & Victoria Park cottonwoods

Northumberland Ribfest building communities

Victoria Park Trees; Running Over Roots

Cottenwood roots run over by Pig Rig in Victoria Park Aug 16

The Lawn of Victoria Park, August 13, 2012

OPEN LETTER TO COBOURG TOWN COUNCIL

Last year Cobourg Town Council received several recommendations that addressed the annual contamination of Victoria Park with industrial amounts of cooking oil and bacon grease from the monster cooking rigs that serve Northumberland Ribfest.

One of the simplest of those recommendations was the request for a platform, or tarpaulin or any other prophylactic device to prevent this annual contamination. Prevention! – what a concept!

There was a recently floated suggestion to allow for permit-only bbqs confined to the Lion’s Pavilion. There is a reason for that. It has a non-absorbent floor. Prevention. But Ribfest gets a free ride to crap anywhere it wants on the lawns. Why was no effort made to prevent this gross spillage of cooking oil and bacon grease? It’s not that Council and the Ribfest organizers didn’t know about it; they did. That was last year.

Look at the attached photos of the fifth annual contamination. The Ribfest organizers did what to prevent this happening again? Nothing that I can see. Every resident of Cobourg should go down to bear witness to the injury to Victoria Park. Observe how long it takes to recover. Visit it every other day or once a week, but check it out. Members of the Parks Advisory Committee should certainly make a walk past twice a week for their own observances.

Question; are those cooking oils and bacon grease biodegradable in a matter of minutes, like rain, like tears, like the natural disorder of natural things? It’s not fertilizer nor coffee, tea, soft drinks, juice drinks, slushies, ice cream carelessly dropped by a nonchalant child. No, no, no, this is big time real contamination done by adults.

These adults chose not to address the annual grease dump in this Great Green Heritage District this year for reasons known only to them. They don’t answer to me, but they should have a civic responsibility to answer to the larger community for this continuing contamination of the lawns. Cooking oil and bacon grease cause harm.

Look at the pictures. Note the oil-slicked grass around the base of a tree that sat behind the cooking rigs. Sloppy sloppy work. Completely preventable. All it would take is the requirement of a tarpaulin or some sort of competent containment.

Repeat after me, “Cooking oil and bacon grease cause harm.”

Look at the pictures. See in some the green grass lovingly trampled by partiers. This is some tough resilient grass. Paramount quality. Fit for daily frolics by countless children. Yellowed grass gets its green mojo back in a couple days. Easy to live with that. But not with dead grass but live root that gets its green back much much slower. Not days, but weeks. There are more and more places were the grass is sparse, where the soil is soaked barren with ugly guck.

Repeat after me, “Cooking oil and bacon grease cause harm.”

Look at the pictures. Dozens of plastic bun bag clips litter the ground, along with two splinters of a broken plastic glass, four depressions caused by a support device left unfilled (golfers with class restore divots.) The park loves bare feet, especially children. There should be no area where children should fear to frolic. “No, no, Johnny, don’t play over there, the ground’s greasy and grimy -- you’ll ruin your clothes.” Every day exuberant caterpillars of children weave their way from daycare to the park.

Repeat after me, “Cooking oil and bacon grease cause harm.”

Look at the picture of the crude boil around the manhole cover. No one in Cobourg is permitted to pour their cooking oil and bacon grease on public lawns let alone near entrances to the storm sewer system. How could such hazardous waste be permitted near that?

Victoria Park is no second level or neighbourhood park. It is top of the top, a crown jewel, a star, The One and it deserves the respect of an environmentally protected area. An easily preventable injury has been done to the lawns for the fifth year in a row. While some patches grow back in days, too many others take weeks. A woman’s black eye will get its colour back before some of those contaminated patches green up. It can no longer be cavalierly dismissed with a grass-grows-back attitude.

Repeat after me, “Cooking oil and bacon grease cause harm.”

Before entering Victoria Park next year. will it be too much to ask that those mobile monster grease pits be diapered?

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COTTENWOOD COOKED IN VICTORIA PARK

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There is no more need to negotiate with the organizers of Ribfest. This photograph was taken Tuesday Aug 23, 2011. They have caused more damage to Victoria Park than a summer full of outsiders. Town Council was told about this possibility happening. Nothing was done. Cobourg Town Council has demonstrated that it is nothing more than a sock puppet for the Rotary Club. And the Parks Advisory Committee needs to explain why they do nothing. No monitoring. Year after year, the grease and oil is spilled, and a proud cottonwood tree that took how many generations to reach its majesty was brought to its knees by a mere cook-off. How pathetic is that. Where is Councillor Larry Sherwin?
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I wrote the following above: "...was brought to nits knees by a mere cook-off"

That was inaccurate. Two trees have died -- both of them from Dutch Elm disease. Two trees have died -- both of them are elms, not cottonwoods as I asserted. Every other large tree in the park is a Cottonwood, but not the two that died. Rather than take down the posting above, I let it stand so that my errors are exposed for transparency.

However, I will be posting pictures soon of the usual industrial strength grease and cooking oils on the lawns.

Facing the Committee of the Whole

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Messy Leftovers In Victoria Park

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From a screenprint of the STAR 93.3 website.

Wally Keeler addresses Town Council

September 13, 2010, Wally Keeler addresses Cobourg Town Council as Committee of the Whole. The issue was damage done to the grounds of Victoria Park by Northumberland Ribfest and suggestions on how to prevent it.

Recommendations to prevent damage to the grounds of Victoria Park by Northumberland Ribfest.

If the event is to be staged in the same configuration as in 2010, then:
1. some form of ground cover must be placed under each cooking rig.
2. the grounds must be returned to the condition in which it was found

If the event is to be staged in Victoria Park, then:
1. park the cooking rigs along Queen St between McGill & Church, or
2. park the cooking rigs along McGill St south of Queen.
3. the grounds must be returned to the condition in which it was found

Ribfest attracted 30,000 visitors. This will grow in the coming near years. Do the people of Cobourg want Victoria Park to bear this burden at such expense? While other events leave a small foot print on the park, Ribfest leaves a bootprint. A large portion of the park is sealed off for six days, including the build & dismantling, thereby denying the full and free enjoyment of Victoria Park as a park.

1. The best location for Ribfest is the east pier.
2. More parking available around the entire harbour, than around Victoria Park.
3. hard surface for any spillage, expedites clean-up
4. speakers and amplifiers are turned south to the United States of America alleviating noise complaints from Cobourg residents north of Elgin.
5. continue the enriching legacy of the Rotary Club’s marvellous job along Cobourg’s harbourfront by utilizing an underused area of the harbour.
6. relieves Victoria Park of the burden of host.
7. an ‘exotic’ location where ribfesters are surrounded by water; the sense of a cruise ship. A cool breeze on a hot summer night.
8. spend funds enhancing the east pier, instead of paying for damage to Victoria Park.
9. it can handle the growth of popularity of Ribfest for years to come.

The Parks Board consider distributing the locus of various events into other parks in Cobourg; to ease the footprint made on Victoria Park. That the Parks Board develop a policy regarding MAJOR events that are likely to have an excessive impact on the park grounds.

The Town Council reaffirm that Victoria Park’s ‘constitutional’ legacy continues to be one of Free Access For All.

Meanwhile Across the Street

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Nine Days Later: A Scoop of Soil & Seed 'Cover-up'

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Eight Days Later; Dead ground expanding

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