Featherston wrestlers continue winning

Archer Coulson inspects his gold medal.

The penultimate tournament of the year the Wellington Regional Championships were held at Kapiti College on Saturday 9 September. 

A strong team from Featherston attended with some of our junior wrestlers building towards this tournament through two terms of training. It also signalled the end of the junior and intermediate season.

Medals went to Manaia Sinclair, Archer Coulson, Charlimarie Sargent and Taine Sargent from our junior class. Unfortunately regular competition wrestler Ashlyn Sargent was ruled out injured. This group have competed at the tri-series events and finished strongly in the regional competition.

The senior class was represented by Nate George, Angus and Tommy Read with Wairangi Sargent ruled out by injury. 

The season isn’t quite over for these wrestlers as we wish them well for their shot at the National Championships in Tauranga in early October.

The National Secondary Schools tournament saw Duncan Allen-Alloway, Angus Read and Tommy Read all crowned with National Schools titles winning gold representing Kuranui and Rathkeale Colleges.

We would like to take a moment to thank our supporters with a particular shout out to Scotty’s Meats.

What Regional Council ‘really’ does – Part 2

By Adrienne Staples, Regional Councillor for Wairarapa

In the August Star I posed the question what does the Regional Council ‘really’ do?

While some of the answers were obvious and known to most, there wasn’t room to cover off all the responsibilities of the Greater Wellington Regional Council. 

Council business is not exactly everyone’s cup of tea but the editor of The Star did feel that there was an opportunity for a sequel.

Sequels can be tricky things however, so I looked for inspiration from some of the more successful ones, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, before settling on the original Star Wars trilogy. 

Although possibly not as riveting as the movie series, some may draw parallels between it and the various forms of local government we have. The three Wairarapa councils being seen as ‘The Force’ caring for local interests, customs and ancient beliefs (the good guys) while the Regional Council fills the role of ‘The Death Star’ trying to be the Supreme Ruler with the biggest spaceship and more soldiers (the bad guys).

Actually, neither is anywhere near accurate as we have our own responsibilities under legislation and GWRC is not pushing any amalgamation debate but it does paint an amusing picture. Imagine our mayor as Luke Skywalker with councillors as Jedi knights. That would make the chair of GWRC Darth Vader and me a Storm Trooper.  … Continue Reading

Native forest fringe started at corner

Trees of Martinborough volunteers hard at it planting scores of trees on golf course land.

“We want this to be a dense stand of native bush in decades to come, an asset to the Golf Course and to the whole town.”

That’s how Trees of Martinborough group founder Martin Freeth describes the scores of native saplings – from Totara and Kahikatea to Manuka and Kouka – planted at the Todd’s Road corner of Martinborough Golf Course by a volunteer band last month.

The project, with trees funded by the Community Board and sourced from two local native plant murseries, adds to a 2021 planting which has already produced native saplings up to two metres high.

The earlier work over about half an acre at the corner was carried out by the golf club, local school children and the South Wairarapa Biodiversity Group. The latest planting ties that planting into two long lines of Totara saplings planted by the golf club after it removed a stand of pines along the club’s 11^th fairway.

“It’s a place where people can wander up with a path through the middle of the trees and a little clearing area where they can look out to the (eastern) hills _ so as not to interfere with the golf,” Freeth told The Star as the planting progressed. 

“The more trees the better really as they are the glue that encourages people to come here. Natives (trees) get us all going and this is a collaboration between the Community Board and this new Trees of Martinborough network.” … Continue Reading

Has the local body merger horse bolted?

South Wairarapa has pulled out of the region’s tri-council talks which, according to deputy mayor Melissa Sadler-Futter, was to look at key questions around local body governance and structure – but moved quickly to discussing merger/amalgamation.

SWDC also had councillor Martin Bosley at the table with Carterton and Masterton representatives.  

“It (the talks) could include shared services, integrated services, the benefits or risks of merger …. looking at all the options and weighing them up to report back to council,” Sadler-Futter told The Star.

“It was clear from some at the table there was an urgency felt by some for a merger and a preference to go down the merger pathway,” with an outcome “to seek a plan to commit to a merger.”

“We felt the word ‘commit’ was the sticking point as at this point we … didn’t have enough information available to us to make a commitment (on merging),” she said. 

The two SWDC councillors wanted to see  – once the work was completed – what were the options, the benefits, risks and the alternatives available “to support the idea or not to merge.”

“We were the only one of the three councils that took that path. The other two (Carterton and Masterton) felt comfortable to start a planning merger conversation,” Sadler-Futter said. “That was a bit of a surprise to us, because it was quite clear to us we were only at the beginning of the conversation. ” … Continue Reading