Come hell or high water

We the residents of Arapuni are to get our own Events Centre.

It will come in the shape of a twocubical toilet.

At a meeting in the Arapuni village hall, the mayor broke the news to the those gathered.

As one who has attended all the meetings in the last few years discussing the Arapuni concept plan, I cannot recall at any time the council being asked to build toilets in Arapuni.

When asked about this, the mayor said that it was his ambition as mayor to build a toilet in Arapuni before he died and this one act would bring thousands of tourists, who were at this very moment queuing to come to Arapuni, bringing prosperity and employment to the people.

When a woman at the meeting said she had been asked 10 times in one day if people could use her toilet, the mayor declared that this alone had made up his mind to build the toilets as soon as possible, and told his companion to go ahead and order the cubicles that were to be used.

Many of us found what this woman said hard to believe as there are toilets at the cafe only a short distance from where she lives.

As before, when the council proposed to put a reservoir on the Arapuni village green, the council had no idea how much the cost would be but was just going to do it regardless.

Again the council has no idea how much upgrading of the sewage system would be required before it could go ahead with the ‘‘mayor’s present’’.

The figure of $65,000 was mentioned by the mayor’s colleague; the mayor disagreeing with this, saying that there had been, to his knowledge, $30,000 already earmarked for the project.

It was quite evident that the mayor was determined to go ahead regardless of the cost to ratepayers.

When it was pointed out to him that the place where he intended to put the toilets and car park had some well established trees that enhanced the village, he said, ‘‘The council does not care about trees’’.

Is this the sort of comment one would expect from a New Zealand mayor when New Zealand boasts of it’s clean green image to the world?

Mind you, I suppose we South Waikato residents should be grateful that we have a mayor and council who are world leaders in the placement of toilet blocks when we see how expertly they placed the toilets in Putaruru, giving so much thought to the feelings of people of that town.

Bearing in mind the mayor’s recent comment about the people of Putaruru, it gives us an insight into how the mayor views the people from South Waikato.

It was good to see that the council had consulted ‘‘four’’ locals as to what they expected in the 10 year plan. How very considerate of them. That must have given them (the council) a good indication of what the 22,900 other residents’ expectations were?

What about all the other people who through this newspaper voice their alarm at the way the council wastes our rates money on ‘‘white elephants’’? B Stevens.

Arapuni