From the Mayor

Fredericka Walker-Murray and Martin Connelly sitting in front of some of her works in Martin’s office.

By the time this edition of the Star comes out, the Council will have set its rates for the year.  I regret to report that the rates have been set at a higher rate that I would like.  There are two reasons for this happening:

1. The clearly expressed views of people who responded to our recent consultation and said the Council needed to spend more on Water Infrastructure than we, the Council, had proposed doing.
2. The state of our Wastewater plants.

The Council has known for some time that it had problems with its Featherston Wastewater plant.  But recently, problems have emerged with the plants in Greytown and Martinborough.  The Martinborough plant has reached capacity, no more connections are allowed to be joined to it.  It requires cleaning (or ‘desludging’) and it has an abatement notice.  

An abatement notice is a legal instruction requiring us to operate the plant in accordance with its resource consent.  If we ignore the abatement notice, we may find ourselves receiving a hefty fine.  Getting the plant back into a condition that meets its resource consent will cost money, but better to spend the money that way than on legal fees and fines.

Desludging should occur round about every ten years, but we understand that the Martinborough pond has never been cleaned. Thus, the need to make progress quickly.  The council also needs to get cleverer at programming these long-term, infrequent maintenance jobs, so that they get properly signalled in our long term plans, and don’t just pop up and surprise us with unexpected bills. 

In normal times we never worry too much about what goes down the toilet, we just assume that someone else is taking care of it.  A recent forum in Greytown reminded people that in times of emergency, however, we need to be able to take care of our own waste. Following a major earthquake, we all need to be prepared to manage our own poos and wees for at least a month.

Our local Emergency Management Office has more to say on this topic here https://www.wremo.nz/get-ready/home-ready/emergency-toilets/  Many people advocate the use of the “two bucket” system in these types of emergency.  That is one of the options described on this web site.

In my first ever article for the Star I mentioned that I was going to turn one of the walls in my office into an Art Wall.  A space to display the work of local artists, to remind us all that we are a district that is full of talented and creative artists. I have finally put my first guest artist on display.  She is Fredericka Walker-Murray from Martinborough.  The attached image shows Fredericka and me sitting in front of some of her works.

If you would like your art displayed, or if you know someone whose art could be put on display, please ask them to get in touch with me, or make contact yourself. Either email me at themayor@swdc.govt.nz  or email danielle.armstrong@swdc.govt.nz.  Every week I get visitors from all over New Zealand.  They usually know about our wine and our scenery. They often get a surprise to learn about the depth of our creativity.