It’s taken 5 months, but the statistics counter has just clicked over 1,000 which is a little milestone.  As can be seen, most have from come locals, and the majority of these during the two by-election campaigns.  The ones from other countries will be mostly from people we know.  These won’t all be unique visitors and will include repeat visits.

The type of view you will get from Waikanae beach.  One of the Kapiti Island paintings by this Paraparaumu artist found on his website

We said in an earlier post that shortcut buttons should be put on the KCDC homepage for council and board meeting details — agendas, documents and minutes.  They haven’t done this, so this is the page to bookmark for WCB meetings.  There are 8 of these a year and last about 2 hours each.

Everyone has the right to say something for 3 minutes about a local issue (inform the KCDC secretary before it begins).  There is no guarantee the board members will take any notice of you, but it’s the appropriate place to start.

Listening to applications for grants of $500 from the parents of little Johnny so he can play in a school sports match somewhere in the country may not be the most exciting thing to do, but more important matters also get aired.

The KCDC supports putting the power cables underground but the GWRC is yet to show support 🙁

No surprise about Transpower’s intransigence, and the battle goes on.  Audio from the KCDC meeting, with a presentation by the Go Underground activists on the subject last week and the motion of support is here.

Time for another historic photo.  This postcard of the time shows the original rail and road bridges in the foreground, both were later replaced — the road bridge circa 1965 (see earlier).

Isn’t it ridiculous? People are using less water now that the meters are in place, so you’re going to pay a higher rate for the water you do use so that the budgeted revenue stays the same…

Councilor Jackie Elliot has made clear she’s furious about it and good on her; Waikanae councilor Michael Scott says in this article that increases are OK as long as they’re “smooth”.   We say no increase is OK — the people have been deceived.

Even before the Expressway opens, shops in Waikanae town centre are closing; today Mark Friedlander of the Provence shop told us he is closing and will be gone by 5 July.  His merchandise will be sold by a shop in Wellington. So if you want to check out his range of French and Italian themed memorabilia decorations, get along there before much longer.

At the same time you could decide whether a pie from the neighboring Siggy is “the best you’ve ever tasted”!

A reader has sent us pictures of art by David Zinn, an artist from Ann Arbor, Michigan. He decorates mundane and uninteresting public infrastructure with colored chalk to create little street fairy tales.  An idea for you, WCB and Destination Waikanae members if you want people to visit the town centre?  There must be a talented local artist who’d be willing to do this in return for a small stipend?

David Zinn’s most famous creation is undoubtedly a little monster called Sluggo. Sluggo has a green body and long, round eyes.

…it is almost frugal compared with some central government departments.  We think this report on the stuff website about the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment spending $140,000 on a TV set for its reception area when it was refurbishing its offices (not to mention a hair straightener) is a good example of what government departments and agencies will do with other people’s money (i.e. the taxpayers) when they don’t think they will have to answer for it!  The boss of this department gets paid $600,000, nearly twice what the KCDC boss gets, and that is bad enough.

Congratulations to the journalists who brought this inexcusable extravagance to the notice of the public; this is exactly what the media should be doing.

Update

The revelations continue – $800,000 on media monitoring and $800 on toy sheep, the type sold in adult stores…

Looking north from the corner of Awanui Drive into the Waikanae North subdivision; the Ryman village is just visible in the centre-background

No grand opening by the Mayor or the Governor General; the barriers that had been blocking cars until a few days ago were simply removed. When we first moved to Awanui Drive in 2006 this area was paddocks with horses; within a few months we learned of the Waikanae North company plans.  When these became more definite about the middle of 2007, unhappy people in Awanui Drive and the streets running off it organised a meeting to let the KCDC know what they thought. At the moment, the area that was paddocks is just vacant lots awaiting buyers — with the exception of the Ryman retirement village.

From the company’s map it seems that only 12 lots have a street frontage on David Street extension; the rest have a frontage on what is to be called Waipunahau Road, or the extension of Parata Street. Both the extension of David Street and the Waipunahau Road are quite narrow, clearly the intention is for cars to go slowly along them. However, some bureaucrat traffic engineer in the KCDC got it into his head to put a Give Way sign at the east end of Awanui Drive, which adds insult to the injury felt by people in Awanui Drive of having this intended big development built next to them. At the moment, and probably for the next couple of years at least, it makes no sense to have a Give Way sign for almost non-existent traffic going along the David Street extension; if the need for a Give Way sign is felt at all, then it should apply to those going along the extension: a normal GW sign and road marking for those going south and a “Straight Ahead Traffic Give Way” sign for those heading north.  On the map above we have indicated with red lines where these road lines should be put. Looking south from the David Street extension into David Street with Awanui Drive to the right.  Right here is where a Give Way sign should have been placed.

Update

Our submission to the WCB in June was ignored, and the traffic engineer had his way — do bureaucrats ever listen?  They do sometimes, but often they don’t.  The practical significance is that when turning into David Street here and into Awanui Drive from David Street here from now on you should indicate if you see another car.  If will only be when there’s an accident that the traffic engineer will rethink, but we don’t want any accident.