Bye to Kaitaia town clock

TIME'S UP: Kaitaia's iconic if controversial town clock was removed on Tuesday, but it might yet be seen again.

Kaitaia no longer has a town clock, a fact that will delight some and appal others. But this wasn't a case of the local community board or district council taking matters into its own hands.

The clock came down on Tuesday, Te Hiku Community Board chairman Lawrie Atkinson saying it was a case of taking it down before it fell down.

He understood from Far North District Council staff that a vehicle had collided with the clock, damaging its attachment to its concrete foundation to the point where "a loud noise would have been enough to send it toppling." (The Kaitaia police had no knowledge of any such incident, although the station is only a hundred metres or so further up the hill in Redan Road).

That raised obvious public safety issues, Mr Atkinson said, so the decision was made to take it down. That did not necessarily mean that it would never be seen again, however. He would be keen to consult with the community before any decision was made about the future of the clock, erected in the early 1960s by the Kaitaia Rotary Club and designed as a tribute to the then dawning Space Age.

"I'm not sure where it is now, but I for one would like the community to have a chance to say if they want to see it somewhere else," he added.

"We're looking into various options for getting power to it, but whatever happens I would expect some sort of public consultation before any decision is made."

Apart from its possibly dated design, the clock has bemused some and raised the hackles of others for some years by consistently failing to display the time accurately, or even to synchronise its three faces to tell the same time, right or wrong, despite the best efforts of Pukenui man Bill Morris to restore it to full running order on at least two occasions.

The community board called a public meeting last year to discuss, among other things, the clock and whether its day had come, some of those who spoke saying it should go, and be replaced with something more attractive and meaningful for the town (such as a large snapper with or without a tide clock). Mr Atkinson said yesterday that no decision had yet been made regarding what, if anything, might replace it, but others at last year's meeting defended the clock stoutly.

They included long-serving Kaitaia Rotarian Drago Yelavich, who said on Tuesday that he was very sorry to see the clock was no longer standing on the intersection of Commerce Street and Redan Road.

The understanding then was that the community board or council might have simply made the decision to get rid of it, but while Mr Atkinson's explanation mollified him a little - his initial hope had been that the clock had been taken away for refurbishment and would be returned to the same site - he was unimpressed generally with the manner in which Kaitaia seemed to disregard its history, and particularly assets that had been gifted to it.

"Other places preserve their history, but here we chop it down," he said.

And given the manner in which other Rotary projects had been treated in the past, he could not discount the possibility that it had gone forever, without consultation.

"Rotary built a concrete walkway up to the lookout in Okahu Road. Where is it now? Gone," he said.

"[The council] took down the welcome sign in North Road to make room for a roundabout and it's never been put back up. I understand it's now going to cost $15,000 to restore it. Now the clock's gone. Will they be looking at the Rotary water wheel at Te Ahu next?

"Assets that are given to this town invariably seem to fall into disrepair, and it's sad," he said.

"The only exception I can think of is Jaycee Park - for now."