Rukuhia rebuild
Both lanes of a short section of State Highway 3 between Rukuhia and Narrows roads near Hamilton airport are being rebuilt and closed to southbound traffic until April 5. The rebuild work involves digging out the existing road layers and replacing them layer by layer. The road is then surfaced, swept and line marked. The intersection of SH21 Airport Rd and Raynes Rd is under stop/go between 7.30am and 6pm each weekday. The works form part of the government’s $2.07 billion investment into road and drainage renewal and maintenance across 2024-27 via the State Highway Pothole Prevention fund.
She’s in!
Jacqueline Todd – admitted to the Bar on Friday. See: Perpetual student lifts the bar
Order please
Local Choice
Random was expected to be the order Waipā District Council decided on yesterday for candidates’ names on the ballot for the local body elections later this year. It will be the fourth time Waipā has gone with an option which puts every candidates’ name by surname randomly on every voting paper, meaning the order on your neighbours’ ballot papers will be different from your papers.
Over budget
A $22 million variance caused by two-yearly revaluations means a planned $20.2 million surplus for Waipā District Council on June 30 is now likely to be a $1.8 million deficit. Development levies and subsidies are down while operating expenditure is up $19.4 million. The council’s debt on February 28 was $396 million which is expected to rise to $419 million in the next three months.
Cyber efforts
Waipā District Council won the Best in Cyber Security award at the Association of Local Government Information Management annual awards.
Plan adopted
Ahu Ake Waipa Spatial Plan
Ahu Ake, Waipā’s community spatial plan, was adopted by the council yesterday, five years after its development began. There were 138 submissions which resulted in changes to the document, including adding “and invest” to the mayor’s foreword, deleting the word retirement and replacing it “with senior living” and removing reference to Mystery Creek as the district’s premier events’ location.
Chamber MC
Honey Hireme-Smiler
Sports presenter and former league and rugby international Honey Hireme-Smiler will act as Master of Ceremonies at the Waipā business awards on May 2 at Mystery Creek.
Sanctuary funds
Orienteering Waikato’s Save the Sanctuary Rogaine raised nearly $9000 last Friday for Maungatautari Sanctuary Mountain and could become an annual event.
Sister city boost
The cost of new information boards and additional outdoor signs talking about the significance of Le Quesnoy will come from the Cambridge Sister Cities Reserve. The $2500 joins spending of $10,000 each on visits next year from Bihoro, the other sister city in Japan, and Le Quesnoy in France the year after. The fund currently at $24,077.
RDA fundraiser
Cambridge Riding for the Disabled will stage a “fun run, wheel, roll” event along Te Awa Cycleway to raise funds on April 6. The event will start at the Velodrome and finish at the organisation’s base in Cambridge.
Fluoride fails
A judge rejected Whangārei’s bid to yesterday stop fluoride being added to the city’s water. The council spent $100,000 on legal action looking to overturn the Director General of Health’s mandate that fluoride be added to four water treatment plants. Waipā council was also ordered to add fluoride to its Cambridge plant and plans to implement it later this year.
Boundary changes
Proposed boundary changes
Taumarunui has returned to its natural home with the announcement this week it will go back into the Taranaki-King Country electorate and out of Rangitīkei.It means Taumarunui leaves the other Ruapehu district towns of Raetihi, Ohakune, Waiouru, Waimarino (formerly National Park) and Ōwhango.
