Unconfirmed MINUTES
Tekapo Community Board Meeting
14 July 2021
Tekapo Community Board Meeting Minutes 14 July 2021
MINUTES
OF Mackenzie District
Council
Tekapo
Community Board Meeting
HELD AT THE Tekapo
Community Hall Lounge, Lake Tekapo
ON Wednesday,
14 July 2021 AT 3.07pm
PRESENT: Chairperson Steve Howes, Chris Scrase, Sharron Binns, Cr Matt Murphy
IN ATTENDANCE: Tim Harty (General Manager Operations), Brian Milne (Community Facilities Officer), Arlene Goss (Governance Advisor), and Craig Willis, the vice president of the Tekapo Squash Club.
The chairman opened the meeting and welcomed everyone.
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Committee Resolution TKCB/2021/188 Moved: Member Sharron Binns Seconded: Member Chris Scrase That apologies be received from member Caroll Simcox, Mayor Graham Smith, and chief executive Suzette van Aswegen. Carried |
Craig Willis, the vice president of the Tekapo Squash Club, spoke on behalf of the president who was unable to attend the meeting.
He requested a written update from the council on the Memorandum of Understanding between the Tekapo Squash Club and Mackenzie District Council. He read out a statement from the MOU that Council would provide seed funding and asked if provision for this funding was put into the Long Term Plan. The squash club would also like to know where they stand now that the property manager has resigned from the council.
Tim Harty said he would be looking after this matter from now on. There was funding available to do a scoping exercise once the Parks and Recreation Strategies were completed. There was a need to scope what a new facility would look like, and this scope would include fulfilling the requirements of the MOU. The strategies would be finalised in the next few weeks.
The chairman asked if there was any merit in continuing to socialise the last document that resulted from community board discussion of the proposed sports facility. He said the community board had already done work on this.
Craig Willis noted that this matter had been ongoing since 2002 and outlined the history. Tim Harty outlined the process to get this item onto the priority list so the money in the land subdivision fund could be allocated to it. He said he knew it was frustrating, but following the process would mean it would not get lost or delayed if staff resigned or things changed.
Member Sharron Binns asked for assurance that this discussion would not be repeated in three years. Frustration was expressed over the amount of time this was taking.
Mr Harty said when the MOU was signed there was no funding put aside to allow staff to go ahead with the new facility.
The chairman asked to add this to the action list, and asked for the MOU to be circulated to all the community board members. He thanked Craig Willis for raising the matter and Mr Willis left the meeting.
Presentation from Boffa Miskell on Lakeside Improvements
Katie Chilton, landscape architect with Boffa Miskell, joined the meeting by Zoom. Draft plans for lakeside improvements were circulated to community board members and are available as an attachment to these minutes.
The first stage, named project one, was considered. Discussion included working with Genesis who also have land in the area. There was also the need for an arborist assessment of trees. The chairman asked to keep trees for shade. Planting would also be needed. The priority was the path.
Project two was then considered. This included closing off the current road and turning it into a pathway/cycleway, with parking areas at each end. Genesis was also happy to have a discussion with the community board about the location of the boat ramps. Katie Chilton said there was a need to talk further with the community about the idea of closing the road.
All the paths within the reserve would be compacted gravel rather than concrete. No edging was planned.
Project 3 the central reserve area was then discussed. Tidying up this site was important. Cr Murphy said this space was prime real estate that had previously been earmarked for something and he wouldn’t want to spend too much money if the land would eventually be used for something else.
Tim Harty said there would be a reserve management plan drawn up for this area. The community board agreed that this area needed to be grassed and tidied up. This would not preclude any future development of this area.
Project 4 was a plan to do native planting on the median strip in front of the shops. NZTA had agreed to this but had no budget. Katie Chilton mentioned a plan for NZTA to transfer ownership of Rapuwai Lane and the median strip to council for future management. Tim Harty said he was unaware of this.
The current budget would allow for all of this work to happen. The chairman thanked Katie Chilton for her work on the plan.
The community board asked to have a workshop to discuss the plan further. Once the plan was confirmed the next step was to pull it together as a work schedule and seek council approval. Discussion was held around either adding it as a variation of work already happening, or going to market as a separate contract. Either option was possible.
Tim Harty said he would enquire as to the legal requirements of stopping the road.
Cr Murphy raised the use of Tekapo/Takapo on the plan documents. He said this should be Lake Tekapo/Takapo and asked for council documents to use the correct name.
There were no declarations of interest.
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Committee Resolution TKCB/2021/189 Moved: Member Chris Scrase Seconded: Cr Matt Murphy 1. That the Minutes of the Tekapo Community Board Meeting held on Wednesday 5 May 2021 be received and confirmed as an accurate record of the meeting. Carried |
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Chris Scrase asked about the township projects budget and suggested the carry forward amount could be used to fund the bike stands requested at the last meeting. The governance advisor said she would make sure the report to council requesting the carry forward of funds included the community board budgets. |
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An application for $430.65, from the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, was considered by the board. This was to fund a trial of 30 footpath reflectors. These would be placed on pathways and be the same as current reflectors on the path at the Church of the Good Shepherd. The community board agreed to grant the funding but added some conditions, as stated in the resolution. |
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Committee Resolution TKCB/2021/190 Moved: Member Chris Scrase Seconded: Member Sharron Binns That the Tekapo Community Board approves a grant of $430.65 to the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve for a trial of pathway reflectors, with the condition that a location map of proposed sites for reflectors is provided and agreed to by the community board and the council roading manager before installation, and that the wording on the reflectors is “Tekapo Dark Sky Reserve.” Carried |
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D’Archiac Reserve – Brian Milne updated the community board on work on this reserve. Planting would be underway in spring. A water connection was also being organised. Waka Kotahi (NZTA) Update – Tim Harty said he hasn’t seen the plans and would like to know what was being planned. He would chase them up. The Tekapo Hall has just received its code of compliance. Tim Harty apologised and left the meeting at 4.30pm. Name of D’Archiac Reserve – The governance advisor has received an email from Runanga confirming that the name suggested by Tekapo School student Elijah Wilson, Maukatua Reserve, was appropriate. The community board passed a resolution in support of this (below). Rabbit Control – Discussion took place on the suitability of shooting rabbits in Tekapo and whether poisoning would be a better option. Poisoning was the method of control in the past. If the community board wanted to use poisoning there would need to be some coordination with land owners. Poisoning had worked well at Lake Alexandrina. The community board felt that if this was communicated to the community properly, poisoning would be the best option and asked Brian Milne to initiate this. |
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Committee Resolution TKCB/2021/191 Moved: Chairperson Steve Howes Seconded: Member Chris Scrase That the Tekapo Community Board agrees that the reserve formerly known as D’Archiac Reserve be instead named Maukatua Reserve, as proposed by Tekapo School student Elijah Wilson and confirmed by Runanga. Carried |
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General matters - Brian Milne asked the community board for feedback on the maintenance of a strip of land between the lake side and Pioneer Drive. The community board agreed to set up the time to talk about this at an upcoming workshop. He also asked for advice on installing a non-slip surface on some wooden ramps and steps in the township. The community board suggested putting a sign up warning people of ice. Black judder bars - Sharron Binns said a member of the public had asked her if the black traffic judder bars in front of the shops could have the tops painted white because people were tripping over them in the dark, or a reflector strip. This was ultimately a lighting issue. Cr Murphy suggested making the edge of the pathway clearer. Marking the existing parks better would be the best option. Community hall hire by Tekapo School - The chairman provided some background on this issue. There was a pre-existing understanding with the school that they would not pay for hall hire. The governance advisor tabled three invoices that had not been paid by the school, totalling $1,257.05. Most of this hire had been incurred by the school production. Debate took place on whether the decision to not charge the school for hall hire should be put to council or was a decision that could be made by the community board. There were mixed views on this. The loss to the community board would be an opportunity cost, in that the hall could not be hired to others when it was being used by the school. Brian Milne suggested a specially discounted rate for the school as another option. The chairman declared an interest in that he was formerly on the board of trustees of the school. After discussion the resolution below was carried. |
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Committee Resolution TKCB/2021/192 Moved: Chairperson Steve Howes Seconded: Member Chris Scrase That the Tekapo Community Board requests that Council waives the charges to Tekapo School as outlined in Invoices numbered 91626, 90868 and 94097; and requests that the governance advisor investigates options in terms of delegation to waive future charges, on the basis that a pre-existing agreement is in place. Carried |
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Brian Milne apologised and left the meeting at 5.05pm. This item was not considered. The community board noted its disappointment that all operational staff had left the meeting without staff representation remaining (except the Governance Advisor). They asked to raise this concern with the chief executive. The community board also requested email updates on two items remaining on the agenda:
· Concerns around the taste of the drinking water. |
The Meeting closed at 5.15pm as there were no council staff present to answer questions.
The minutes of this meeting were confirmed at the Tekapo Community Board Meeting held on .
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CHAIRPERSON