Hanging flower baskets to adorn High Street shops

September 15th, 2011
[by David Armstrong]

Motueka will this summer provide the colourful vista of hanging flower baskets along the High Street retail strip, thanks to an initiative by Our Town Motueka and voluntary assistance of the Rural Fire Network.

At last night's Our Town AGM chairman Howie Timms announced that after a lot of work behind the scenes by a determined group of members the popular beautification project will be ready for the tourist season. (Check out the simulation photos below.)

The Design and Heritage subcommittee, led by Anita Newport, has been working hard to find ways to beautify the Motueka CBD. "Last year the idea of hanging baskets was researched and after discussion with local irrigation professionals, the idea was put aside due to the difficulty of quoting for an irrigation system and issues contacting building owners etc," Anita told Motueka Online.

"This year we have been able to revisit the idea as the local Rural Fire Network have volunteered to water the baskets twice a week, which means we could trial a year of baskets without the expense of irrigation. We would encourage the support of business owners to help water the baskets outside their shops between times to keep baskets looking their best.

"We propose that the first year, baskets could be placed on High Street shop frontages with an estimated 50 baskets. This would be a great start to beautify the town and hope that with business support, we could increase the amount of baskets over an extended area for the following years."

Nelmac, which is responsible for the baskets in the Nelson CBD, is helping with the scheme.

The business promotion group's AGM drew a very good crowd of 28 people - about double that of last year's AGM. Also pleasing was the number of people voluntarily offering their services on the committee, usually a performance involving lots of arm-twisting.

OTM's treasurer John Murphy reported a solid financial position. The group has reserves of $25,311 and liabilities of $6892, and an operating deficit of $3293, which was much stronger than last year.

Manager Jacqui Taylor spoke about the two signature events that Our Town ran last year - the Starlight Parade and the Motueka River Raft Race. Both went very well, especially the raft race given it was a resurrection and a huge amount of work went into the planning behind the scenes.

"I consider that Our Town Motueka does an excellent job of representing its members with minimal resources," said Jacqui. "It is easy sometimes to compare ourselves to other towns and areas believing that we should have what they have or replicate what they do.

"However, I believe that our value and future lies in our environment, our community and our point of difference. What we need to harness is more positive people and willing workers to drive forward."

Before the official part of the AGM, guest speaker Bill Findlater, CEO of Nelson Economic Agency. He summarised the economic scene in the Nelson/Tasman region, saying that as we are and will remain primarily a food producer we are well placed for the future.

He emphasised the need for ongoing market research, particularly in Asia, to ensure we supply what people actually want rather than just what we think people should want. He said our shops and tourism operators need to be more aware of how to please Asian tourists.

He said that 'buying local' should not be the priority in the Nelson region because of our reliance on exports and trading with other nations. And he was enthused by the prospect of the Tasman Cycle Trail. "This one will rival any others in New Zealand, and local entrepreneurs should be looking at ways of taking advantage of this."

These photos were created by Motueka's professional photographer Lisa Ball. She took the photos and then photoshopped them to include how she imagined the baskets could look.

Comment by William Cleaver:
[Posted 15 September 2011]

Living and owning a business in Riwaka and not being apart of the retailers group in Motueka, I thought it would be a great opportunity to attend the AGM of Our Town Motueka held at Elevation Cafe and Bar last night.

These words where posted on Facebook: 'Are you interested in helping to create a partnership between business and community aiming to improve the physical, economic and social environment of Motueka? Come to the AGM tomorrow.' Perfect, I thought, here is the chance to meet other businesses and find out what this partnership will entail.

Well somewhere in that lot I seemed to miss the plot. They had a guest speaker that spoke about relationships with chinese tourists, the apple market, fisheries and export and import opportunities away from using local. I was hoping that a few issues like freedom camping and especially the main issue for me is - What has OTM done about the fact Motueka won best town in NZ last year?

So I ask these questions: What has the Business sector done to improve a physical, economic and social envionment with the community in Motueka? What is OTM stance on Freedom Camping? And what was done to showcase the fact that Motueka won BEST TOWN 2010?

Comment by Anita Newport:
[Posted 15 September 2011]

Not all of our mission statement can be achieved in one meeting however, as representatives of both business and community groups were there (Greypower, Motueka Recreation Centre, Community Board) it is really up to the attendee also to make the most of a networking opportunity, mix with others and avail themselves to some 2 way conversations.

Re the guest-speaker - Bill Findlater highlighted the point that while it is important to buy local we must also be conscious of the fact that China is a significant market and as Motueka is part of the large food bowl we need to be savvy about using our local products (and strengths) to generate more income and balance this with export.

The Business sector has contributed to the social econmic and physical envrionment of Motueka by: donated goods time and material for activities events, eg Starlight parade, River Race , Promotions, some streetscaping over a long period, enviromental initiatives.

Comment by William Cleaver:
[Posted 17 September 2011]

I had a meeting with Howie Timms (chairman of OTM) and the resulting answer to why was nothing done about the fact we won best town 2010? Howie says he believes a banner has been or was going to made to hang at the entrance to the town (bit late).

Also commented on the fact that we have too many committees in Motueka all working independently for the same goal. Our Town Motueka, Motueka Beautifying, Community board, Motueka Promotions Board (i-Site) and TDC. Also it has just been mentioned by OTM facebook entry that it's the publics fault for not attending the community meetings. No one wants to take resposibility for this issue.

So we suggested that leaders of each group meet and come up with a plan that will showcase what we have. Simple ideas were to add BEST TOWN 2010 under the headings of the local newspaper for a year. (Why didn't they do that themselves to increase circulation of their own paper?) Have store owners in Motueka put up something in their own windows (this should have been done the moment we won). Have brochures made that show cased THE BEST TOWN and have that distributed throughout the district i.e. I-Sites and motels.

It still would appear that the best opportunity for Motueka to promote itself is going to slide under the table never to re-appear. Motueka has been given a Golden spoon to dip into sweet honey and what did we really do with it?

Shall we move on. Another OTM member suggested that Brigette (NZ next top model 2011) should have a parade through town. Brilliant idea. Bring it on MOTUEKA.

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