New home for beach patrollers
Himatangi beach patrollers will no longer operate out of members’ private garages.
The small group of 13 volunteers has been gifted a two-bay garage and office by Britton Housemovers, in Bulls, to park its patrol vehicle and be a base for its operations.
The garage, worth $12,000, will sit on a section the Manawatu¯ District Council has offered at $100 a year. Britton Housemovers has also agreed to move and install the garage for free.
It was a welcome relief for a group that has struggled for money since its establishment in 2016, coordinator Rene van de Weert said.
The group had previously planned to raise funds for the garage through sausage sizzles.
‘‘You can imagine how hard that would have been.’’
The council has allowed the group to place the 48 square-metre, colour, steel shed on an empty lot at the Himatangi Bowling Club for 10 years.
In 2016, the group secured funding to purchase a jimney patrol vehicle.
It was temporarily stored at the Himatangi Surf Club, but it has sought to find a more permanent facility amid space constraints.
Van de Weert hoped the paperwork would be done and the new shed installed in about four months.
‘‘We’ve been using private garages and the surf lifesaving club, but obviously we can’t be in there when they are running.
‘‘This offer came out of the blue and you could imagine how we feel.’’
Given that the vehicle is connected to police radio, it couldn’t be parked and left on the road, he said.
Parks and property officer Kirsten Pike said the site was wellsuited to the patrol club and was not in demand from other potential tenants.
‘‘The lease will resolve a longstanding issue for a well-intentioned and valued community organisation at Himatangi Beach.’’
Last year the patrol covered 750 kilometres during the summer break and put in 110 hours.
Van de Weert said it had two active patrollers on at any one time.