Progress on Raetihi Community Projects

Raetihi is a lot closer to having free main street WIFI, security cameras and household water filters installed following a successful community meeting last Thursday night (23 June 16).

There was a good turnout of over 30 residents to the meeting at the Raetihi Primary School hall wanting to see progress on the plan to extend free WIFI along the main street, the installation of Police managed security cameras, and the installing of water filters in households affected by the 2013 diesel contamination of the water supply under Project Waireka.

Ruapehu District Council (RDC) Chief Executive Clive Manley said that we now have agreement on the key points for all three projects to allow them to move forward.

“With the WIFI project the community agreed the amount of data anyone can use per day (100mb per device per day), where it would be available (Seddon St from intersection with SH to Duncan St), and its hours of availability (5.00am to 10.30pm daily).”

“The community felt that these arrangements would provide a useful service to most all users while helping to control the issues that sprung up around the free after-hours WIFI being available from the library.”

“All going well it is anticipated that the WIFI will be up and running by September in about 10 to 12 weeks.”

“Council will undertake a review of new WIFI service three months after go-live to see how people are using the service and if any changes need to be made to how it is being delivered.”

“With the security cameras the Police will be working with Raetihi Promotions to secure a bit more funding and all going well expect to have them operational by the end of winter.”

Mr. Manley said that on Project Waireka households accepted that Council is not accepting any liability whatsoever for how long the filters will last and that while under some circumstances individual households will find that the filters will last for the time periods specified by Spring NZ or longer, likewise, other households could find the filters last for considerably shorter periods.

“Spring NZ have said they will guarantee their pre-filter for six months and the primary filter for 12 months based on a maximum flow of 30 litres per day and that filters that don’t last this long can be replaced at a price discounted to reflect the time difference.”

“Individual households can now consider all the issues, the associated risks and possible future costs, and then make a decision on whether to proceed.”

“There are still some people in rental properties that needed to obtain their landlords permission before the filters can be installed,” he said.

Ruapehu Mayor Don Cameron added it was a great night for Raetihi with the community coming together with Council, the Police and other stakeholders to discuss and agree how to proceed on all three projects.

“It was good to see people thinking about the use of WIFI and how it could boost business and create other opportunities for Raetihi, as well as community support for the town security camera proposal and Project Waireka moving forward,” he said.

Mayor Cameron also noted that Council committed to holding a public meeting on Raetihi water sources and associated issues at a later date.

ends

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