Getting more bang for our buck

Volunteers and organisations on shoestring budgets do so much for community social wellbeing

April’s Te Awamutu and Kihikihi Community Board meeting was a busy one with three fairly big topics on the table for discussion.

These topics were the allocation of the discretionary funds and the submissions for both the enhanced annual plan and fees and charges.

We had 16 applicants, $36,000 worth of funding requests and only $8400 to give out, so it was a really difficult round.

Every application was worthy and we wish we could have supported you all. We are also sorry that for most of you, we could not get anywhere near what you were asking for your projects.

We are extremely lucky in our towns that we have so many community organisations doing amazing work, with hours and hours of volunteer labour to make sure we have the services, sports and interest groups that people can join and be a part of.

It is these groups and organisations that do so much for social wellbeing.

On behalf of the community board — thank you.

Based on feedback from the public, the community board has not supported the average rates increase of 14.8 per cent and would like to see it dropped to an average of between 10 and 12 per cent.

We provided some ideas for some places we thought further savings could be made, including staffing and consulting costs.

We are concerned about the level of debt and the pressure from the Government to keep funding growth projects before we get paid for them and would like to see further lobbying to provide some support or relief.

We also would like to see the GST component of rates come back to councils to help fund some of our big infrastructure projects, like wastewater plants.

We have requested our funding for the discretionary fund be reduced to $40,000, not $20,000 as this money goes a long way to help our local community organisations provide all the wonderful services that they do.

With all the volunteer labour and working on shoestring budgets, we really get a bang for our buck.

People out in the community have told us that they value the work our isite does, with 60 to 70 per cent of the people who use it being local.

Based on this feedback, providing it with some financial support to stay afloat while it finds other funding opportunities is a good use of ratepayers’ money. Again, we are getting far more value than what we are paying for.

The community board has built a strong relationship with the Te Awamutu Chamber of Commerce and have supported much of its submission. This includes keeping the Holmes Garage top of mind as a potential long-term plan project.

Finally, we have yet again requested some funding goes towards providing a safe walkway/footpath from McDonald’s to The Warehouse.

This is a project that has been on the radar for many years, so it would be great to finally get it across the line.

You will be able to read our full submission when it becomes available in the next few weeks.

Hearings will be held at the Waipā District Council chambers on May 20 and 21 and we will speak to ours to highlight what we think is important.

Our submission for fees and charges supported the proposed 10 per cent increase as costs have unfortunately increased and a user pays system also helps keep our rates down. We did however question the increase for burials as there wasn’t an increase for cremation interments as well.

Our reasoning for this was it could be considered culturally insensitive to target only one option and be seen as “encouraging” people to choose the cheaper option, which may be contrary to their beliefs.

Waipā Networks got back to us and it had in fact done everything it could to let residents know it would be using drones in the various areas it was doing work in.

This did include local newspapers and letterbox drops in the affected areas and signs out while staff were working.