Litter cart set to return to the streets

December 12th, 2012
[by David Armstrong]

Motueka will see the street litter cart operating again shortly, with the Community Board yesterday approving the pooling of resources to enable payment of the service provider for up to 15 hours a week over five days.

The Board decided recently to provide $5,000 from its Special Projects rate to part-fund the operation, and the Motueka Lionesses have agreed to donate $2,000. Workbridge is able to subsidise a client worker with enough wages to bring the total up to a three-hours-per-day scheme, and Board chairman David Ogilvie will sort out these details with Workbridge.

If that falls through, the operation will nevertheless resume after a year's break, but based on an eight-hour week. In that case Councillor Eileen Wilkins will approach the retailers who contributed to the litter cart in the past to see how much extra can be raised.

The cart will operate in central town streets but not in private business car parks.

Community Board Rate
The Community Board voted by majority to keep the targeted rate which pays for its operating budget at the same level for the 2012/14 year as it is for the current year - $10.66 (excl GST) per rateable property.

David Ogilvie had proposed increasing the rate to $13.67 (excl GST) for the next financial year - about the same as it was two years ago - with the increase going toward covering inflation, increased photocopying costs and extra for Special Projects to enable the planning of additional projects.

He said the increase per household for the whole year was less than the cost of one cup of coffee, and that ongoing projects were needed to stop the town going into a recessionary mindset, but Board members Paul Hawkes and Cliff Satherley voted for no increase. The three Councillors who are also Board members did not vote, and Board member Mark Chapman was not present.

Discretionary funds
For the first time this year, an application for the Board's discretionary funding was turned down. Motueka Online applied for $180 to pay for the fixed costs of maintaining the site (domain name and web hosting) for another year, which the Board had granted for the past three years.

Paul Hawkes and Cliff Satherley said that the grant had been appropriate when the site was getting going, but now it was established the funds to maintain it had to be found from business sponsors or from the editor. The three Councillors again did not vote.

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