KEY POINTS:
It took organisers seven years to repay the final $45,000 from sinking the former Navy frigate Waikato off the Tutukaka coast, with the last bill cleared this month.
HMNZS Canterbury will need quite a bit more than $45,000 to be sunk off Deep Water Cove on November 3, but faster repayments are predicted.
The Bay of Islands Canterbury Charitable Trust's overall budget forecast for the sinking was $600,000 but an extra $120,000 has been spent on bio-security requirements.
Trust chairman Richard Witehira said $400,000 had been earned through fundraisers and the sale of scrap metals, and a levy on commercial operators to dive on the wreck after the frigate was sunk should get them going.
Jeroen Jongejans of the Tutukaka Coast Promotion Society, which organised the Waikato's sinking in 2000, said the theft of $30,000 of scrap metal had forced the group to borrow $40,000 from the Whangarei District Council. It had also owed $5000 to the Northland Regional Council for resource consents.
"We haven't been able to do anything ... Couldn't appeal for funding from charitable trusts during these seven years and so we are glad that the debt has finally been cleared.
"I see people in the Bay of Islands have the same problem and I hope their [Far North District] Council will be able to help them."
Mr Jongejans said the Canterbury trust had embarked upon a huge and stressful undertaking but everyone would enjoy the long-term benefits.
For the Canterbury, Mr Witehira said the waiver of more than $80,000 in berthing fees by Far North Holdings and charges relating to resource consent, compliance and inspection by the Northland Regional Council had been of tremendous help.
- Northern Advocate
