Everyone’s a roading engineer

Graeme Tong has not always been the people’s most popular council manager.

The Palmerston North roading manager is retiring on November 18 after 29 years with the city council, during which time he has been in charge of everything that lies between private property boundaries.

That includes the roads, footpaths, kerbs and channels, the bus seats and shelters, rubbish bins, street trees, street lights and traffic signals.

And sometimes more controversial than the rest, he has been in charge of the car parks, sensors and meters.

The assets he has managed are all highly visible, ‘‘and almost everybody uses them on a daily basis’’.

‘‘It’s like I have 83,000 staff who assist me.’’

The roading unit gets more than 5000 requests each year from people who want something done, from footpath repairs to road sign replacements.

And some of them get a bit hot under the collar about it.

‘‘I’ve been called an environmental vandal with a Nordic chainsaw mentality.

‘‘I get quite a lot of that sort of thing, when we have just interfered with someone’s existence, and it is often quite heartfelt.’’

Tong’s 16 years as a rugby referee have helped him to not mind too much what people say in the heat of the moment.

But, when he is accused of putting lives at risk, that does get to him a bit, ‘‘when all I really care about is giving service to the community, the best I can, with what I have to work with’’.

Beyond the daily issues, it is Fitzherbert Ave that has dominated much of Tong’s tenure at the council. He was involved even before the current Fitzherbert bridge was built.

Working as a draftsman with the former Ministry of Works and Development, he was involved with the design of the bridge’s alignments.

The bridge was opened in March 1987. Tong started work with the council later that year.

The subsequent four-laning of Fitzherbert Ave in the 1990s, at the cost of fiercely-defended street trees, was both a highlight and lowlight. Tong wore a lot of the community condemnation.

But today, he asks how many people would want to wind the clock back to the time when it could take more than an hour to drive from The Square to Massey University. ‘‘People just don’t believe it.’’

His biggest disappointment was that the city had not achieved building another road bridge over the Manawatu River despite three attempts to decide on a location.

The planned cycle and pedestrian bridge was not quite what he had envisaged.

His boss, City Networks general manager Ray Swadel, said Tong had been involved with significant projects besides the four-laning of Fitzherbert Ave, including replacement of the Saddle Rd Bridge after the 2004 floods, and upgrading of the CBD streetscape in the south-western quadrant of The Square.

His replacement is Jon Schwass, a chartered professional engineer with nearly 40 years’ experience in roading and traffic engineering who most recently held a similar position with the Napier City Council.

To celebrate one of Tchaikovsky’s most enduring ballets, the Imperial Russian Ballet company recreated Vainonen’s choreography, with some revisions by Taranda, allowing us to delve into the magical world of Dr Stahlbaum as he prepares for Christmas Eve.

This production captures all of the fairy-tale colour and toy-box characterisations that one expects from the ballet.

This much-loved tale was brought to life by a superb cast led by Nariman Bekzhanov as The Nutcracker Prince and Lina Sevelov as Clara, who both shone with some magnificent solo and pas de deux work.

This inspirational work was matched superbly by all soloists and the corps de ballet. The large cast also included children from the Maureen Ax School of Dance.

These children were beautifully incorporated into the ballet in various guises. While they may have been included for box-office reasons, there is no doubt that the children were integral to the success of the ballet and this company had worked hard, with much care and respect for the children, to ensure that the children’s magnificent contributions was a delight.

It is the second act that features the most well-known numbers of Tchaikovsky’s score, including The Waltz of the Flowers and the Russian, Chinese, Spanish and Arabian dances, all superbly realised by a committed cast.

The audience were quick to show their appreciation of the efforts of our local young dancers following their presentation of the Dance of the Gnomes. Magical!