Board set to help fund walkway in Dannevirke

The Dannevirke Community Board is prepared to put money into a walkway for Cole and Smith streets and Adelaide Rd.

“It would be nice for the board to contribute $7500 this year and the same next year, just to get the ball rolling,” board chairman Bob Dresser said.

Previously board member Ernie Christison had said the project would get under way once the Tararua District Council approved funding as part of its draft annual plan. However, at the annual plan hearings, Tararua District Mayor Roly Ellis made it clear the walkway was not going to be subsidised by the council and urged Mr Christison to find money elsewhere.

Mr Christison told fellow community board members he had had a meeting with Peter Wimsett, the council’s strategy and district development manager, to get the project to the planning stage and he would be taking council’s engineering staff around the area to assess what was required.

Previous estimates for the work were between $25,000 and $30,000, Mr Christison said.

“I’ve had a meeting with some people involved with funding and I’m in talks with a couple of other groups too,” he said. “I hope to have rough costings in time for the next community board meeting.”

The council’s governance manager, Richard Taylor, said the walkway was a local project and it was up to the board as to how they progressed it, but he wanted to ensure Mr Christison, a local contractor, was open about his intentions regarding the project.

“Are you intending to do work on this project?” he asked. “Yes,” replied Mr Christison. The board currently has a surplus of $12,000 and the new financial year starts on July 1 and Mr Taylor said there was money available for the project.

And plans for an outdoor gym should be being tied into the walkway, community board member Tim Delaney said.

“This would put an integrated exercise regime in place,” he said.

“Unlike Woodville [where the gym equipment is in Fountaine Square] where it appears the equipment is used mainly by local kids as play equipment, I think if we can co-ordinate it with the walkway, it will be an asset for our community.”

Mr Delaney said he had seen a similar approach at Burleigh Heads on Queensland’s Gold Coast. “It works well there.”