Committee may yet be revived
A NEW group to organise Oamaru’s Victorian heritage celebrations may be formed after several people expressed interest at a meeting last week in reviving the former committee that folded in April.
More than 30 people, including Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher and those closely associated with the celebrations, met at the Scottish Hall on Tyne St discuss if the event would go ahead this year and how it would be run.
The meeting was called after many expressed uncertainty about the future of the event when the committee that organ ised the celebrations, part of the Oamaru Victorian Heritage Celebrations Incorporated Society, folded last month after no nominations were received to fill available spaces made vacant through rotation and retirement.
At the meeting, several people put their names forward to be part of a new organising committee.
The society will hold a formal meeting on Tuesday, June 5, where it is expected the nominations will be ratified and the formation of the new committee confirmed.
If a new committee was formalised options would be looked at to determine what support could be offered by Tourism Waitaki, a Waitaki District Councilcontrolled organisation, to help organise the event, Mr Kircher said.
However, if a committee was not formed it was likely Tour ism Waitaki would take full control of the event’s organisation, with the exception of the Victorian fete which was run by the Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust.
Either way, volunteers would still be required.
‘‘I was very clear . . . it would only work if the volunteers were still very involved with the running of individual events during the week. It’s really important that the community does stay involved,’’ Mr Kircher said.
In previous years the council had supported the event financially, which Mr Kircher said he was unlikely to change.
Last year, the council contributed $14,000 to the event.
Mr Kircher said both the council and Tourism Waitaki wanted the celebrations to become a nationallyrecognised ‘‘true marquee event for Waitaki’’.
Former society chairwoman Marise Martin, who resigned after last year’s celebrations but chaired its annual meeting in April, could not be contacted for comment last week.