July 2020 news and events

8 July 2020

Shovel Ready Project Funding

8 July 2020

Westland District Council welcomed the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau and MP for West Coast-Tasman, Damien O’Connor, on Wednesday 8 July for the announcement on further Covid Response and Recovery Funding through the Provincial Growth Fund for Westland District. This follows the announcement of the $1 million for the repair of Jackson Bay wharf last week.

Further funding Council will be getting:

$3.3 million to remove the waste material from the closed Fox Glacier Landfill to Butler’s landfill outside of Hokitika and to complete the clean-up operation at the Fox and Cook Rivers.
$4.7 million for roading infrastructure in Franz Josef and Old Christchurch Road between Hokitika and Kumara.
$3 million to upgrade the Hokitika Swimming Pool.
$1.2 million to extend the Hokitika Airport Building

Read our press release for details.

Photo by Westland District Council

Upcoming Council and Committee Meetings

8 July 2020

Council and committee meetings are held in the Council Chambers of Westland District Council unless otherwise noted. Meetings can also be viewed through livestream on the Council website and on Council’s Youtube channel following meetings.

Meeting	Date	Time
Economic Development Committee	14 July 2020	3.00pm
Ordinary Council	25 July	1.00pm
Community Development Committee	3 August	5.30pm
Audit and Risk Committee	6 August	3.00pm
Capital Projects and Tenders Committee	11 August	3.00pm
Ordinary Council	27 August	1.00pm

Inset Photo by Simon Eyre

Feature Photo by Westland District Council

Volunteers Wanted

Library Home Delivery Service

8 July 2020

Westland District Library is looking for volunteers to help books to customers’ homes in the Hokitika area.

The library would like to offer a Home Delivery service of library books for patrons that are unable to visit the library due to illness, disability or advanced years. The time requirement is likely to be a couple of hours once per month, depending on volunteer numbers.

If you think you could help us deliver the books, please contact us, 03 7556208 or email natasha.morris@westlib.co.nz.

Content Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash

Feature Photo by Julia Joppien on Unsplash

Important things to remember

Know Your Recycling

8 July 2020

Unsure of what you can put in your recycling bin?

Waste and recycling staff have put together some new information that you can find on our website. Print it out and put it on your fridge!

Important things to remember are:

Council no longer accepts plastic in recycling bins.
Plastics marked 1, 2 & 5 shouldn’t be bigger than 3 litres.
Soft drink bottle, milk bottle, yoghurt and ice cream container lids are not recyclable.
Items should be put into the Recycling bin clean and loose – if you put recycling into a plastic bag for tidiness – it makes it non-recyclable at the sorting centre.
Nylon strapping and Polystyrene are non-recyclable.
Soft plastics are non-recyclable (any that can be scrunched in your hand eg bread bags).
Chip and biscuit packaging aren’t recyclable (unless it has a 1, 2 or 5 on it).

Watch out for red stickers!

Waste officers are completing random checks on kerbside recycling bins. If your bin is checked and contains non-compliant items, it will be red-stickered and in some cases won’t be emptied.

If your bin gets a sticker, please remove any non-compliant items as indicated by the sticker. Your recycling bin can then be put out for collection on the next recycling day.

Photo by Jon Moore on Unsplash

Winter Events and Programmes at the Library

8 July 2020

Click the links or check out the library’s website and Facebook page for more information.

Special Events	Date	Time
Lantern Making workshops	15 & 16 July	10.00am – 12.00pm
Library Talk – World Ranger Day with Michelle Lambert	26 July	5.30pm – 6.30pm
Textile Trading – Winter edition	Friday 31 July Saturday 1 August	2.00pm – 6.00pm 10.00am – 2.00pm
Art at the Library – The subversive embroiderer by Donna Stewart	Daily Artist talk – Wednesday 5 August	During opening hours 10.00am
Regular Events
Café Books	Saturday mornings	10.30am
Wriggle and Rhyme	Tuesdays during school term	10.30am – 11.00am
STEAM Club Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics – hands on learning experiences	Tuesdays from 28 July (Registration required)	3.30pm – 4.30pm
Wellbeing group	Tuesdays from 4 August	10.30am – 11.30am
Junior Book Club	Fortnightly Thursdays from 21 July (Registration required)	3.30pm – 4.30pm
Junior French Club	Fortnightly Thursdays from 30 July (Registration required)	3.30pm – 4.30pm

Register for events and activities by visiting the library, email library@westlib.co.nz or call 03 755 6208.

Photo by Andy Hall on Unsplash

Winter Events and Programmes at the Library

Swimming Pool Looking Forward to Reopening

8 July 2020

Hokitika swimming pool will reopen refreshed and ready for business later this month. With a fresh coat of paint on the lane markings in the swimming pool and work completed on the boiler, staff look forward to welcoming the public back.

Aqua Fitness will begin on 20 July and Aqua Zumba will start on the first Friday after opening. This is an excellent form of exercise for aching bodies and joints and will help to kickstart fitness if you have been enjoying relaxation during the Covid-19 lockdown. Classes are low-impact, really social and lots of fun.

If a class doesn’t appeal and you don’t like to swim, come and take a walk under water. The pool is always a warm place to walk on a cold day and only 1.4m at its deepest. Walking underwater is excellent rehabilitation for hips and knees. The available hoist means that there’s no reason not to visit.

Swimming lessons will restart after the July School Holidays.

Photo by Westland District Council

Swimming Pool Looking Forward to Reopening

Dog Registration 2020/2021

8 July 2020

Dog registration fees for the 2020/2021 year are now due. Register your dog before 31 July to avoid late payment penalties. Information about registering your dog and making payments is on our website.

Description	Fee (as at 1 July 2020)
Rural	$58.50
Urban	$74.00
Responsible owners Inspection Fee (first year) Registration Fee	$50.00, plus registration fee $50.00

Photo by Westland District Council

June 2020 Creative Communities Grant Allocations

8 July 2020

The Westland Creative Communities Committee has awarded $9,790.50 to five diverse creative projects.

The funding allocation meeting in April 2020 was postponed because of the COVID-19 Alert Level 4 Lockdown in March and April 2020. A meeting was held on 16 June to decide allocation of grants for applications received for that funding round.

The recipients in the funding round were:

New Coasters Inc for workshops and presentation of ‘Westland Migration Stories’
Westland REAP for their Art4me – End of year Exhibition “Homemade”
Hokitika Lantern Parade – workshops and parade
Westland REAP for ‘Ta Moko Presentation’ at Arahura Marae
Tahora Beats for workshops and training

The next funding round allocation meeting for Round 1 2020-2021 will be in September 2020.

Council will advise when applications open. Information for planning an application can be found on our website.

Feature Photo by Alp Allen Altiner on Unsplash

Annual Plan 2020/2021 Adopted

8 July 2020

Council adopted the Annual Plan 2020/2021 on 30 June 2020 with a zero percent rate increase. This was made possible through a reduction in a number of areas of operational expenditure that were impacted by Covid-19, drawing short-term loans and pushing rates increases under community rates through to the 2021/2022 year.

Key changes to the Annual Plan adopted by Council include investigating a land-based option for future treatment of Hokitika wastewater, taking ownership of the Westland Sports Hub and funding the insurance through the Hokitika Community Rate and providing a $78,616 grant for unforeseen project costs, funding of $57,500 to the Regent Theatre with a commitment to include this in the 2021-31 LTP and funding of $15,000 to support the work of the West Coast Wilderness Trail Trust. The Annual Plan 2020/2021 is available on our website.