Council: adaptation to weather required
THE Central Otago District Council says it needs to learn to ‘‘accommodate the new normal’’ if more frequent weather emergencies mean its roading budget continues to be overspent.
The Otago Daily Times reported on Tuesday that roading repairs from heavy rain last July cost $970,000.
Council executive manager infrastructure services Julie Muir said $556,060 of funding should come from the NZ Transport Agency and the rest would be paid for by the council.
For the $413,940 being paid by council, $367,302 was in a council reserve account set up to cover the costs of emergency events on roads, Ms Muir said.
That left a deficit of $46,638, most of which could come from rates income and income from interest in 201819. There would still be a deficit of $2134.
Ms Muir said the uncertainty of funding could make the district ‘‘more vulnerable to these kinds of events’’.
‘‘If it is the new normal, we need to accommodate the new normal.’’
Cr Stephen Jeffery said the amount put into the emergency fund in the future looked ‘‘pretty light’’.
The council would look into how funding could be improved and would implement a training programme to educate staff on response management following extreme events, Ms Muir said. — Additional reporting Pam Jones