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A Southland District Councillor says she will not go for a second term if a “small but very important” timetable issue isn’t tweaked, which she says is hindering diversity at the council table.
Donations from the public totalled $18,000, Owen said. A mixture of electricity and solar power is now used in the building, but Owen believes in the summer with longer daylight hours, it could be just solar. “The excess we produce in the summer, that we’re not using, will be sold back to the grid,” she said. A long term goal is to buy batteries to retain the solar power generated on site, she added. The solar power system at the museum and information centre was designed and installed by World Solar NZ. Its company director, Doone Morrell, said a total of 54 solar panels were installed on the north-east and north-west of the building.
At the meeting, Cr Karyn Owen said the council needed a plan-B in case there was a shortfall again in the next funding cycle. “I think that [in] four years’ time, we shouldn’t just be hoping that they’re [NZTA] going to come to the party with their share, because the reality is that might not happen again, and we could be in the exact same position again,” Owen said. The council has 161 mostly timber bridges which need to be replaced in the next 10 years; the replacement programme will now be reviewed. Of the council’s 4961 kilometres of roads, 60 per cent are unsealed, making it the largest unsealed network in the country.