Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Last month I saw this quirky café sign that appealed to my nerdiness – that 31 years equates to a billion seconds. Bar a few thousand, it’s been a blast and an enormous privilege to be part of governing .
The Lee Valley construction site of the Waimea Community Dam, photographed in early April.
Faith in the Tasman District Council s ability to manage the Waimea dam project has faded, says a Motueka community leader. “Talk around a lot of the town is: ‘Where does this end and what ultimate costs are there?’ and so the faith of our community has waned a lot,” Motueka Community Board chairman Brent Maru told councillors at the Long Term Plan submissions hearing this week. The council sought feedback on four options – A to D – outlined in its LTP consultation document to meet the irrigators’ estimated $25.2m share of another $54.5m needed for what it is now budgeted to be a $159m project.
Cherie Sivignon15:22, May 04 2021
Martin De Ruyter/Stuff
The Lee Valley construction site of the Waimea Community Dam, photographed in early April.
The council has been accused of going “through the back door” with a proposal to target rate Waimea Irrigators Ltd-affiliated landowners to recover a slice of the Waimea dam project overrun costs. In one of more than 1700 submissions to the council’s draft Long Term Plan 2021-31, Waimea Irrigators Ltd (WIL) points out that the Tasman District Council agreed to a clause in the project deed that any overrun costs would be shared 50/50 between the council and WIL for the first $3m, “and those in excess of $3m are to be funded by TDC”.