Fixing flooding damage to cost $150k
Damage to Timaru’s parks and playgrounds after heavy flooding will cost about $150,000 to completely repair, the council has been told.
District council parks and recreation manager Bill Steans has advised councillors the council had to decide where it would get the funding from to fix the storm damage.
‘‘High winds associated with the storm caused numerous trees to fall blocking roads, tracks and making some sections of park unsafe to use,’’ he says in a report.
‘‘Further damage occurred in the vicinity of streams and water courses where bridges and culverts were damaged and sections of tracks completely washed away.’’
Timaru District councillors agreed at a community and development committee meeting that the money would be funded from the council’s disaster recovery fund.
A council spokesman said he understood there had been about $50,000 of immediate clean up costs, widespread over all parks.
‘‘There are other longer issues such as bridge damage, path repairs and slips that will make up the balance (of the $100,000).’’
A state of emergency was declared in mid-July after torrential rain struck the South Canterbury region.
One of the options the council considered but discounted for the parks was taking money from the parks and recreation operating budget, which would reduce levels of service for sports fields, children’s playgrounds, tracks and plantings.
Last month flood damage estimates for Timaru’s roads came in at $860,000- however the district council is expected to pay less than half that, with the flooding event qualifying for emergency works financial assistance.
Damage was particularly prevalent in the gorges around the district, particularly Te Moana Gorge - where it was three-and-a-half weeks before residents’ road access was completely restored.
Hand hygiene
The South Canterbury District Health Board (SCDHB) has come third from bottom in a national league table for hand hygiene. The Health, Quality and Safety Commission compiled a report every three months rating the compliance of hand hygiene at each DHB. It ranked them by the number of ‘‘moments’’ when staff should have, for example, washed their hands between patients, going onto a ward, or used the medical steriliser in bottles around a hospital department, and listed the number of ‘‘correct moments’’ when hand hygiene was undertaken properly. The total average compliance rate for all health boards was 83.7 per cent, while the rate for the SCDHB was 75.7 per cent. The Taranaki DHB and Hauora Tairawhiti DHB finished lower with compliance rates of 72.3 per cent and 71.3 per cent respectively.
Clock forgotten?
The owners of an antique clock which was lost for 40 years and recently found have not come forward. Stuart Latimer, who was given the clock to overhaul when he was a teenage apprentice watchmaker in the 1970s, hoped a story in The Timaru Herald would jog the owners’ memory so he could return it. He said he had not heard anything but still hoped the owners would get in touch.
Police seek witness
Police in Oamaru are seeking any witnesses to a crash that occurred at 1.50pm on Thames Highway in Oamaru on Friday. The incident involved two cars and a pedestrian. Constable Greg Francis, of Oamaru, said one of the cars hit a pedestrian who sustained minor injuries and also hit a parked car. Francis said anyone with information should call 03 433 0400.
Police notebook
Incidents reported to police include:
A 20-year-old Timaru man was arrested for a number of assaults after a family violence incident on Albert St, Timaru, at 7am on Tuesday.
A Timaru man was arrested for trespass on Evans St, Timaru, at 4.30pm on Tuesday. The man was also found by police to be in possession of two knives.