Christine McDonald has sandbags surrounding her home, but water continues to flow under her floorboards. Photo / LDR
Christine McDonald has sandbags surrounding her home, but water continues to flow under her floorboards. Photo / LDR
Dog control officers are on the hunt for a serial pet killer in Whakatāne and asking people to report it to them not just Facebook.
Pet owners in the town are anxious after multiple cases of pet rabbits or cats being attacked or killed by a roaming dog in the last six months.
Whakatāne District Council community regulation manager Carl Redaelli said the dog control team was aware of the situation and investigating but had not been able to formally identify the dog or dogs “as the description of the dogs varies”.
Tracy Powley’s cat Mika was attacked on December 18 and has been euthanised.
“It was maybe two or three in the morning ... I slept through it, but my husband heard a commotion. When I got up in the morning there was cat fur everywhere and I didn’t see the cat all day, which is very unlike him.
“He showed up at about 10.30pm with really bad injuries. We took him to the emergency vet and she cleaned him up and gave him pain relief.
“I took him back to the vet on Monday morning so they could sedate him and have a proper look ... Mika had to be put to sleep.”
Redaelli said for his team to uplift any dog they needed to be 100 per cent sure they had positively identified the dog that had killed pets.
Mika had to be euthanised earlier this week after being attacked by a roaming dog in the small hours of Sunday morning. Photo / Supplied
He said they had stepped up patrols in affected areas and Facebook commentary on community notice pages did not have the same weight in a court of law.
Anyone with information should confidentially contact the 24/7 animal control officers at 07 306 0500.
Council u-turns on decisions
Ōpōtiki District Council has reversed two decisions made by the previous council.
The council is eligible for a slice of the $2.5 billion central government Better Off Funding - $4.68 million in tranche 1, which is being applied for now, and $14.04m in tranche 2, available from July 1, 2024.
In September the previous council voted to apply for $1.42m for a $3.05m upgrade to the pump station and culvert at Tawara Creek and King St.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the new council voted unanimously to remove the stormwater project from the better off funding application and instead seek $1.42m for an alternate project to create a Community Facilities Plan and Implementation Plan. The stormwater project is to be loan funded instead.
Interim chief executive Mile McConway said the alternate project would have been difficult to fund through loan funding or rates so the plan would allow the council to take a more strategic, planned approach to property and community facilities over the next five to 10 years.
The council also revoked a September 27 decision to endorse the Ōpōtiki Harbour-Wharf Masterplan and Implementation Plan
At the time then councillor, now mayor David Moore and councillor Barry Howe voted against it.
Howe expressed concerns about the plan’s provisions for access to the wharf for commercial fishing and aquaculture boats while Moore said he didn’t think there had been adequate community input into the plan.
At Tuesday’s ordinary council meeting, councillor Tom Brooks moved a motion to revoke the September decision due to delays to the completion of the marina that was to service the mussel boats from Whakatōhea Mussels.
“There appears to be some uncertainty caused by the delays to the marina (being built). What we really need is a tie-up for servicing the mussel boats in the harbour when the harbour opens.”
He said he didn’t believe full consultation had occurred with all affected persons and other councils.
The motion was passed with four votes in favour, two abstaining votes and one absentee.
Living in fear of rising flood waters
All Manawahe Rd residents Christine McDonald and Heikki (Jack) Lipponen want for Christmas is for the rain to stop.
They say they have endured “slow water torture”, as gradually rising water flows under their villa-style home, which now sits in the middle of a lake that used to be their lawn.
Despite being well above sea level, their section is in a depression between hills, and run-off from neighbouring farms accumulates in ponds near their property.
Sandbags are piled around the house, while its residents look to the skies and cringe at every sign of rain.
Since heavy rain events in July, the areas on either side of their property have begun to fill and gradually crept higher, until on December 7 it started to flood their property.
Christine McDonald has sandbags surrounding her home, but water continues to flow under her floorboards. Photo / LDR
Whakatāne District Council has visited the site and helped with pumping water away but has since told them there is nothing more it can do as there is nowhere for the water to be pumped to.
McDonald has also contacted the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, which has told her that in the new year it will investigate whether any measures can be taken to ensure it does not happen again.
The floor is a new one, installed two months ago. The septic tank is unusable. The couple has set up a shower with the garden hose on higher ground at the back of the house, but they have had to go to friends and family for proper showers. Precious belongings are stacked on top of shelves and beds along with electrical cords and appliances, ready for the day the water comes up through the floorboards.
Manawahe Eco Trust has offered them the use of the old school to evacuate to, although due to a leaking pipe, there is no running water there.
What they would like is a caravan or campervan they could park in their driveway for when the water rises further.
They are hoping someone might loan them one because although they are well insured, the water has not yet reached the floorboards and their insurance company will not provide any relocation finances until the house is damaged and they lodge a claim.
Work on bilingual Ōpōtiki slowed down
Progress on Ōpōtiki becoming a reo rua (bilingual) town has been put on hold for the mayor and councillors to be brought up to speed about what it involves.
At an Ōpōtiki District Council meeting on Tuesday, elected members were asked to formalise an agreement in principle between Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board and the council to join the Aotearoa Reorua initiative, run by the Department of Internal Affairs. The programme offers $225,000 in funding over two years for the council and iwi to work together to create and implement a plan to create more opportunities for te reo Māori to be seen, heard and celebrated.
However, mayor David Moore, who was a councillor last term, said he had not been made aware of the programme.
Recommendations in a report to the council included formally agreeing to be part of the initiative with the trust board and to delegate staff to progress the work required. This included preparatory work to apply for the funding, which needed to be done by February. The next council meeting is not until February 7.
Opotiki District Council. Photo / NZME
Councillor Steve Nelson said it was news to him too.
Councillor Tom Brooks said he thought the concept was “fantastic” and was happy to give his tentative approval.
“But I would like to know what it actually looks like. I support having a workshop so we can get our heads around it.”
The council voted unanimously to formally agree to be part of Aotearoa Reo Rua, in order for the funding application to be made but did not agree to the staff recommendation to delegate staff to progress work required as a partner of the initiative.
Council won’t meet long-term plan goal
Whakatāne District Council will not meet its long-term plan goal to have its spatial plan and future development strategy completed by the end of this financial year.
In a quarterly report presented to the council last week elected members heard that the target of completing the Eastern Bay Spatial Plan and Future Development Strategy was not on track to be achieved this financial year.
The plan is being worked on with Ōpōtiki and Kawerau district councils, and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council to look at how they would like the Eastern Bay to develop over the next three decades.
Due to a variety of factors, the new timeline for completing this is June 2024.
Drinking water fails to comply with standards
Five of Whakatāne district’s nine drinking water schemes failed to comply with new drinking water standards in the first quarter of this financial year – albeit for only short periods in most cases.
The quarterly report for July 1 to September 30, which measures the council’s non-financial performance against its Long-Term Plan, adopted in July last year, was presented at a meeting last week.
Drinking water is an important topic for councils. Photo / NZME
Of the 39 non-financial performance measures reported quarterly, 36 were on track to be achieved. Two mandatory measures that did not meet targets were around compliance with the central government’s new drinking water standards that came into effect in November.
The report said a “brief instance of low UV at the Tāneatua water treatment plant” resulted in that scheme not meeting parts four and five of the standards.
Part four deals with the bacterial content of water after it leaves the treatment plant while part five deals with protozoal compliance criteria assessed at the treatment plant.
The other eight schemes were all compliant with part four of the standards, however, the target set in the long-term plan had been for all nine schemes to be compliant.
Three other schemes were non-compliant with part five only. These were Murupara and Rangitaiki Plains schemes, which the report said did not have the necessary infrastructure to consistently meet requirements, and the Ruatoki scheme, due to instances of high turbidity at the treatment plant.
The council was below the 30 complaints per 1000 connections, with 0.26 per 1000 connections. It met the median response time to call-outs of less than an hour to reach the site and less than eight hours to resolve the problem for urgent call-outs and less than 24 hours to reach the site and less than 48 hours to resolve the problem for non-urgent call-outs.
The report showed that the council was on track to meet all of its stormwater and wastewater targets.
