It won’t be all tin sheds … the Council has secured a grant to help with landscaping, lighting, etc around the temporary Rangiora shopping hub. You can read about it at: http://newfoundations.org.nz/Libraries/Media_Releases/Christchurch_Earthquake_appeal_Trust_Approves_Funding_towards_Temporary_Business_Accommodation.sflb.ashx
Meanwhile, the council is negotiating for the building of a temporary shop in Kaiapoi.
The blog has been a bit quiet for a few days because I have been in Australia doing a bit of grandad duty (our only grandchild, Imogen, is now 11 months old). We got back yesterday, in time for ANZAC Day.
I was involved in three services today: in Kaiapoi, Rangiora and Tuahiwi. Each was different but all were impressive in their own ways. There were very big crowds in the two main towns and a much smaller gathering, as one would expect, at Tuahiwi. There were other services in Oxford, Cust-West Eyreton and Fernside and at Rangiora High School. As has become the practice, an Ohoka service took place yesterday.
The memorial at Tuahiwi exemplifies what goes on all over the country and in Australia.
It didn’t take long: the shops are moving up Durham Street. PaperPlus are going there, with their Toyworld business going on the Council Lawn.
In the long term, Durham Street is a good move as it is in the best direction for the High Street shopping environment to expand to as The north is the area to where there is the most room. It is zoned for business up as far as Blackett Street.
One of these buildings is a church!
Actually, as most locals know, it is the one on the left that is St Mary’s Anglican Church. It is still used by a small group of parishioners, even although the building is no longer owned by the Anglican Church.
The new one on the right is part of the new Rangiora Mazda complex, owned by Hanish Hide. He has decided to keep the church on his property and work his new workshop and administration area around it. Good on him!
Rangiora Mazda has to move from across the road because that site is now owned by Foodstuffs and will be the site of a Pak n Save supermarket.
The Canterbury Museum was closed today pending further investigations. A short report can be found on Stuff at http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/6752820/Canterbury-Museum-closed-due-to-earthquake-risk
The Trust Board, on which I represent the Waimakariri and Hurunui Districts, decided that it needed further engineering assessment before it could feel that two of the museum’s wings were safe for public and staff. The Board also asked for the possibility of a partial reopening to be investigated.
Ironically, the oldest parts of the building are quite safe – close to 100% of new building standard. Although they date from the nineteenth century, strengthening done in the 1990s has worked very well.
The Rangiora Bowling Club Pavilion has been recognised as a “Landmark”. At a short reception last Thursday, Annette Golding, a grand-daughter of one of the original builders, unveiled the plaque. This follows the refurbishment of the building by the Club to turn the lower storey into a more usable lounge for members. The work included earthquake-strengthening to bring the 100-year-old building up to code. The pavilion is a Category II historic place
I can think of few buildings in Rangiora that are more worthy of the the term “landmark” than this one. It occupies a prominent place on the corner of Blackett and Good Streets, which would be one of the town’s busier intersections.
The Landmarks project has been ongoing over a number of years, starting as an inititaive of Our Town Rangiora, the Rangiora and Districts Early Records Society and the Council. The aim is to recognise the work of owners to preserve their heritage buildings in the centre of the town and to inform people of the history of those buildings. The programme has been more recently extended to Kaiapoi. Other recent plaques have gone on the Kaiapoi Band Rotunda and the the former Parrott’s grocery store in Rangiora (now Rangiora Eyecare).
We have lost a number of heritage buildings in the District because of the earthquakes and others have been closed to the public because they have been assessed as dangerous. It is great, therefore, to have a good-news story!
You can read more at http://landmarks.waimakariri.govt.nz/home.aspx
Work started in earnest today on the temporary shops to go into High Street Rangiora. Currently four are under construction.
In January 1953, the Ashley broke out north of Rangiora and headed across country. Old-timers (defined as people who have lived here a long time and are at least 10 years older than me) often use that as the bench-mark of the Ashley’s capabilities. I recently came across these photos of my mother’s – at the time she was a young widow with two small boys in tow.
I was a five-year-old at the time, on holiday in Waikuku (in Pine Avenue on the south side from the Lagoon) from Christchurch. The water headed towards Waikuku and broke the bridge that used to cross the lagoon. The water filled up the low ground to the south for a considerable distance and was eventually released by bulldozing out the sandhills where the surf club now sits.
Those of us on the south side were trapped, although not in any danger. As a little boy, I found it quite exciting! I can well remember the churning water heading out to sea once it was released. I can also remember air-drops of food being made to the store on the other bank – very few helicopters in those days!
Once the water had subsided the men set to work building a footbridge across the remains of the road bridge. This gave us access to the store.
Eventually those on the south side got their cars out by driving in convoy along the beach to Kairaki. We were third in line but my mother’s little Austin 7 couldn’t keep up with the first two, so the rest of the convoy had to go out our pace! The photo below shows our arrival at Kairaki.
The Government’s Better Local Government reform programme contains a table listing all NZ’s councils with figures relating to their rates and debt. There are 67 District and City Councils in New Zealand and in terms of population, Waimakariri is the 19th largest.
The figures relate to the financial year ending 30 June 2010.
The table shows Waimakariri’s rates-per-capita at that time ($663) as the fifth-lowest in the country. The average rate increase over the the period 2002-2010 was 7%, right on the national average.
The debt level per capita was $485, which was 15th-lowest in the country. The increase of debt, however, was 1115% – obviously that had started from a very low base.
During those ten years, the Council had built the ocean sewerage outfall for something like $35m, which impacted those ratepayers in Kaiapoi, Woodend, Rangiora, Waikuku Beach, Woodend Beach and Tuahiwi who are in the Eastern Districts Sewer Scheme. The othe second-largest project was the new Rangiora water supply, of which some of the rates impact had had not finished by 2009-10. This is a $16m project which affects only Rangiora ratepayers.
The effects of major projects, therefore, can affect some ratepayers considerably, and others not at all. However, they do affect the Council’s overall debt level.
The Council is proposing a 5% increase in rates on average for the coming year. Debt levels will double because of the major capital projects ahead of us, notably the Kaiapoi Library, Rangiora Town Hall and Ashley Bridge.
As implied above, Waimakariri has a lot of rates that are targeted to specific areas. This means that the impacts of increases in the total rate take vary considerably from area to area.
The Government programme can be found at http://www.dia.govt.nz/better-local-government
The Waimakariri Council tonight confirmed a recommendation that came out of the Rangiora Community Board to shorten the time limits in many parts of central Rangiora.
While this will doubtless be unpopular with some people, the aim is to increase the circulation of those parking spaces at a time when a large number of parks have been lost in the CBD.
The Council does not control all the off-street parking in the town. Council off-street parks are most, but not all, of the area behind the Council building, most of the Blake Street carpark and the area between New World and Ashley Street. In the carpark between Alfred Street and Countdown Central, only the area behind the fire station is Council-owned.
A sunny day, a large crowd, a huge number of stalls – and, of course, lots of stock and produce competing – plus the events in the show ring – what better place could there be to be last Saturday?
Safety fencing went up in Kaiapoi today closing off an alleyway between the ANZ and former Westpac Banks and also the footpath outside. Fortunately. there is still room for a footpath and two lanes of traffic. The Westpac has already found new quarters by Countdown and the ANZ is hoping to move back once their Williams Street building has been strengthened.
Because quite a few parking spaces have been lost with the various barriers, new spaces were created this morning to help make it easier for people to shop locally.
In another move, the Rangiora Community Board has approved a range of shorter time limits on parking spaces in the town cente to help circulate their use more rapidly.
Riding for the Disabled was officially launched in North Canterbury on Sunday with an enjoyable opening by Hon Kate Wilkinson MP.
The location is behind the North Canterbury Community College on Rangiora High School land. Des Moore and his team have done an impressive amount of work in getting to this point and it was great to see the enthusiasm of the riders. Also outstanding was the long list of sponsors and commercial and community supporters who have helped to make this a reality. Once again, this community has shown its ability to get behind a worthwhile cause.
The Rugby World Cup came to the Kaiapoi Rugby Club yesterday – along with the rest of the NZ Rugby Union’s silverware, like the Bledisloe Cup, the Womens RWC, the Sevens Trophy and the trophies against South Africa and England.
Lots of kids around – a good crowd. Thanks to the the NZRU and the Canterbury Rugby Union for doing it.
Meanwhile, the Kaiapoi club has had to close its changing rooms because of earthquake risk. They have a containerised shower unit already in place, and the Council is arranging for portaloos.
If it’s not one thing, its another!
The Kaiapoi ANZ Bank, operating out of a campervan since the company decided their Williams Street building was unsafe to occupy, is now moving into a portacom. They may have yet another shift before they can get back into their building, once strengthened.
Meanwhile, the Kaiapoi Westpac has moved into their new permanent quarters by the Countdown supermarket.
The older building dates from the 19th Century and is a Category 2 Historic Place. It is the orginal church, replaced by the 1950s building seen on the left – a scaled-down version of Trinity Methodist Church in Rangiora. The Horrellville church is now part of the Oxford District Union Parish.
Canterbury has lost so much heritage, it is good to see some surviving.
The extent of strengthening work in the new ASB Bank building (formerly Gibsons’ appliances) was revealed a bit today. Major corporates do want to come to North Canterbury and the photo shows that at least some of our buildings, while needing work, do not necessarily have to be demolished.
Unfortunately, as we all know, there is a lot of immediate pain.
Paul’s Cycles and Mowers shop in Kaiapoi was closed down by CERA at the end of last week. Proprietor Paul Kirk has managed to find alternative accommodation in the former G.A.S. station not far away on the other side of the railway line – probably not a bad position for him but it still means another empty shop in one of our town centres.
Rangiora suffered another body blow today. Conway’s PaperPlus and Toyworld did not open today, having been declared a dangerous building. Street Legal next door is in the fall zone. The PaperPlus must have been one of the town’s busiest shops, so that means that th eloss of another drawcard makes life that much harder for the remaining businesses – who still constitute the substantial majority.
You can see photos of the strengthening of the Chamber Gallery at:
This building was the office and chamber of the Rangiora Borough Council and is now part of the Library, housing an arts space (i.e. the Chamber Gallery) and the Citizens Advice Bureau. A small meeting room displays World War I memorial boards.
Rangiora High School Year 11 students took part in their annual Road Crash programme on Friday. It starts with a simulated road crash with the rest of the day’s road safety programme following on. Kaiapoi High School and Oxford Area School have also had Road Crash days recently.
In Kaiapoi, both the Westpac and the ANZ have moved out of their buildings because their companies have assessed their buildings as unsafe.
The Westpac until today has been in Dr Kaye Buchan’s garage, opening on to the Council carpark. On Monday they will be in their new building near the Countdown supermarket.
The ANZ, currently operating out of a campervan, will have a portacom soon, and then it too will probably use Dr Buchan’s garage. It this stage it is thought that their Williams Street building is repairable.
Rangiora’s High Street should be open again to through traffic as early as this coming Monday afternoon.
The intention is to put containers three-high in front of the Lambert Building (Graeme Smith Unichem, etc) with the bottom containers full of concrete. This barrier will be able to be placed nearer to the building than the current fences, thus allowing more space between there and the fences in front of the Farmers.
This was announced publicly last evening at a well-attended meeting of business and building owners in the Council Chamber.
Plans are going ahead for a Re-Start Village in front of the Council building. Some businesses are keen to get into it, although it could be six weeks before the first are open. Council staff have sourced the most economic option.
Councillors and staff are totally focused on getting busines going in High Street again.
The Blood Brothers opening night got a stand-up ovation from a very full Chervier Centre in Rangiora last night. I have to confess that we knew nothing about the show beforehand (even although there is a billboard on my fence!) but Marilyn and I throroughly enjoyed ourselves. The production was professional and fast-paced.
Well done, too, to the North Canterbury Musical Society for going ahead with the show despite the closure of the Rangiora Town Hall. The Chervier Centre works well, although there must be a lot of constraints.
A public meeting was held tonight on the future of the Oxford Town Hall and the Pearson Park Pavilion.
Both have been assessed at less than 33% of New Building Standard.
The estimate for bringing the Town Hall to at least 67% is about $2m and the pavilion $125,000.
It has been suggested that it would be better to combine these two amounts and put a new building serving the functions of both in a suitable place in Pearson Park.
At the meeting, concern was expressed that $2.125m would provide a building that was too small for the purpose. Nevertheless, the meeting agreed that investigations into the feasibilty of a new building should be proceeded with to enable the community to make an informed choice.
This is certainly not a final decision to go one way other the other.
Like all community buildings, the Town Hall is funded by rating across the whole District. In this case the work, whatever is done, would be paid for out of an earthquake loan.
Council staff met Rangiora business owners that have been dislocated by the two north-side building closures this evening, outlining more definitive plans about what can be offered for the area in front of the Council. (The Robbies and Farmers closures have not affected other buildings, apart from causing Greg Knight Chemist and Devlin Real Estate to move away from walls.) The number of buusinesses there will depend on how much space each wants.
We want to move quickly on this, because it will take about 8 weeks for the buildings to get into place. The Council will only build to order: we need a commitment before we order units.
In Kaiapoi, the situation is status quo. While retailing in Kaiapoi has been affected by the loss of many shops since the September quake, there have been no closures of buildings recently. We do have contingency plans for Kaiapoi, however, should the need arise.
Meanwhile in Oxford, there is a public meeting tomorrow night (Wednesday) in the GP Hall to discuss future options around the Town Hall, closed because it is earthquake prone.
The Council has closed three buildings, affecting 6 shops, 2 travel agents, 1 restaurant and three non-retail businesses. Farmers have closed themselves. That’s all.
One of the shops is still operating in the rear of its building and two others have relocated. Both of the travel agents have relocated. High Street east of Victoria Street and west of Percival Street are unaffected by closures.
Graeme Smith Unichem Pharmacy is at the rear of his building – access off Blake Street
Today was the day for the thirteenth Kaiapoi to Rangiora Fun-Run and Walk. To be exact, this year, from the Mafeking Bridge in Kaiapoi to Southbrook Park. On alternate years it runs in the opposite direction – downhill!
Thanks for the Lions Clubs of Kaiapoi, Rangiora and Woodend, plus the Pakeke Lions and the Rangiora Lionesses, who along with Visit Waimakariri organised the event – also to major sponsors, the Northern Outlook and Kaiapoi & Rangiora New Worlds – plus a number of others.
It was good weather – warm but overcast.
I walked!
Parapets being removed in High Street, Rangiora. The shops underneath have remained open - like most shops in the central area.
In this case, the street is being made safer through the actions of the building owners. The shops concerned are Country Lane, Rangiora Fish Supply, The Accessory Shop and Cream & Clover.
For those who are wondering, the Farmers building will require more detailed engineering assessment. This will occur in a few weeks. With the closure of the Pulley’s building, several businesses have relocated. Jaks is now over the road and upstairs sharing with Essence. House of Travel has moved upstairs in the Gables Arcade and Ross McMillan Farm Tours is in with Compass FM, upstairs behind the Lotto Shop.
