March review
REGION: A mayor’s long-held concerns for the safety of his council building were fuelled by the release of a report that appeared to validate some of his fears.
March: A mayor’s long-held concerns for the safety of his council building were fuelled by the release of a report that appeared to validate some of his fears.
Horowhenua mayor Michael Feyen, who had six months earlier refused to work in the 10-year-old, $10-million building believing it earthquake risk too high, released a building report he had commissioned from Structural Concepts as he didn’t trust the council’s own assessments.
The report declared the building fit to be occupied, but there were ‘‘potential structural vulnerabilities’’, including concerns about the roof, and it recommended relocating the civil defence headquarters to a different location.
The building could potentially be classified as earthquake-prone under some interpretations of current laws.
And the report itself was open to contrasting interpretations.
‘‘It’s a hell of a big problem. It had to be made public,’’ said Feyen, who released the report against legal advice.
Council chief executive David Clapperton, however, welcomed the report, which found the building in sound condition, and saw no reason to doubt the findings of two previous engineering reports, in 2014 and 2016, that found the building safe.
A brouhaha also brewed over who should pay for the Structural Concepts report.
Feyen had claimed he would stump up the $24,800 himself if he had to, but later felt the findings warranted it being a council expenditure.
Parking near Palmerston North Hospital was causing a stir for everyone.
Visitors and staff, put off by pay-parking on hospital grounds, were clogging up nearby streets, vexing residents.
Charging families of patients for parking didn’t sit well with some Midcentral District Health Board members, and the revelation the hospital was raking in $450,000 a year from parking fees only added fuel to the fire.
Enraged at several hospitals for charging for parking, Alex Dexter started a national petition against the practice.
Midcentral argued the revenue from it covered upkeep and funding for future works. However it did decide to extend its 30-minute free parking period to 40 minutes.
The health of one woman was of particular interest to readers in March.
Jules Wilson was lying in a coma, part of her skull cut away to ease the pressure on her swollen brain, when her mother made the agonising choice to turn off her life support. But Wilson woke up.
When she was 21, the Palmerston North woman had been a passenger in a car that crashed into a ditch while passing at 150kmh.
She suffered critical head injuries and was not expected to survive the night.
In the face of the grim prognosis, her mother agreed to have Wilson’s life support turned off.
‘‘I must have heard it because I was like, ‘I’m not ready just yet, just having a sleep’, Wilson said.
‘‘Something happened and they kept me on and I woke up.’’
Wilson spent two-and-a-half-weeks in a coma, and then had a long road to recovery and acceptance of living with a head injury.
Now 32, she had cause for celebration, having completed a level four national certificate in mental health and addictions.
Inspiration could also be found in Katrina Nicholson’s desperate methods to find a job.
The Palmerston North woman, who in one month had applied for 121 positions but had not landed a single interview, put her pride to the side and stood on Rangitı¯kei St with a giant sign promoting her employability.
‘‘I need a job. That’s it,’’ the 43-year-old said. ‘‘I’ve been unemployed for a month and I can’t sit on my bum all day looking at a screen waiting for a job to come by. So I’m out here looking and hopefully I’ll get a job.’’
And get a job she did. Nicholson was soon employed as a cleaner at a motel.
Manawatu¯ wore its heartland on its sleeve in March, with Palmerston North hosting the Hilux Rural Games for the first time. Though dampened by rain, the event attracted the competitive and the curious for its array of rustic contests, and a memorial Running of the Wools in Feilding.
The pastoral flavours got stronger later in the month when Central Districts Field Days held six days of agricultural events at Manfeild.
After a couple of soggy years, fine weather helped draw more than 23,700 people through the turnstiles.