Being prepared for a flood event – with the near-miss during April it’s a timely reminder to make sure we are all ready.

The Rates Rebate Scheme provides a subsidy to low-income homeowners on the cost of their rates. To be eligible the income threshold for a full rates rebate is $24,470 and is increased by $500 for each dependant in the household.

The maximum rated rebate is $610 and the additional income allowance for dependants is $500 per dependant.

Homeowners can apply for a rebate from 1 July 2016, for the 2016/17 rating year. The closing date for applications is 30 June 2017.

More information can be found on Council’s website or the Department of Internal Affairs website.

Turakina Valley Road, Majuba Bluff and Drysdale – extensive work to widen narrow sections of the road and repair a dropout are largely complete. Minor delays are expected once pavement construction begins.

Parewanui Road – widening and pavement works are being completed, so expect minor delays.

Jeffersons Line – pavement works are being completed, so expect minor delays.

Manawatu and Rangitikei District Councils have obtained government funding for a programme offering free de-sexing to new or unregistered dogs in the district that would normally fall under the classification of “menacing or dangerous” breeds or type listed in the 4th Schedule of the Dog Control Act 1996.

These include breeds of dog such as Brazilian Fila, Dogo Argentino, Japanese Tosa and the Perro de Presa Canario and types of dog such as the American Pit Bull Terrier.

This programme will also include a reduced cost towards microchipping of new dogs to the district register.

Funding has been provided in part by central government as part of the national strategy to reduce the risk and harm of dog attacks.

The Department of Internal Affairs’ contribution is designed to reduce the number of menacing or dangerous dogs by restricting unwanted breeding and decreasing aggressive behaviour.

MDC and RDC will be working in partnership with SRVS Vet Services and Totally Vets on the project.

Senior Animal Control Officer Robert Peterson says both Councils’ Dog Control Bylaw requires all dog’s classified as menacing or dangerous to be de-sexed.

“This programme provides all new or unregistered dog owners with an opportunity to have this done for free.”

Currently both Councils enforce the neutering of any dog classified as menacing or dangerous and want to support those owners who may have dogs that qualify but have not been registered due to the costs involved in de-sexing.

For owners interested in taking advantage of this opportunity, please contact either Manawatu or Rangitikei District Council and provide them with your details.

Following this, you will be contacted by an Animal Control Officer who will confirm your eligibility, explain the process to you and help book an appointment for your dog, assisting you through the whole process.

“This free programme gives owners the incentive to act responsibly. It’s a win-win for owners and our community.”

The programme runs from 24 March – 30 June 2017.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) recently announced that from 1 September 2017, manufacturers and retailers must supply notices with pools informing consumers that the pool must have barriers that restrict access by young children. For example, the barrier could be a 1.2m high fence surrounding the pool, or a safety cover for a small heated pool such as a spa pool or hot tub.

This notice requirement applies to pools that can be filled with water to a depth of 400mm or more.

People must apply for a building consent before installing barriers for residential pools, other than safety covers for small heated pools.

From 1 January 2017, the Building Act 2004 also requires residential pools, other than small heated pools with safety covers, to be inspected every three years to check the barriers.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment carried out public consultation on proposals for these manufacturer and retailer notices in September 2016. You can find further information on restricting access to residential pools on the Building Performance website.

Reference: MBIE website article “Pool manufacturers and retailers required to supply consumer notices”

It’s time to clean the brushes, wedge the clay, dust off the camera lens and get the imagination going.

Rangitikei District Libraries is proud to present Rangitikei Reflections, an art competition to capture what it is we love about our district.

The competition is open to artists using any medium, including 3D, textiles, printing and photography, as well as painting and drawing.

“We’ve run writing competitions about Rangitikei before,” librarian Melanie Bovey says, “but this year we decided to give visual artists and crafters an opportunity to say what living in Rangitikei means to them, whether it’s the landscape, the people, family connections or anything else.”

Local business Westoe Communications is supporting the competition. “Rangitikei is home to many creative people, and it’s great to have a chance to promote the work coming out of our district,” owner Belinda Howard says.

Rangitikei Reflections is open for entries from April 18th until May 19th.

Entry forms can be picked up from libraries and information centre throughout the district, or downloaded from the Rangitikei Libraries website www.rangitikeilibrary.org.nz

For more information contact: Melanie Bovey, Rangitikei District Libraries, Phone 06 327 0080

(adapted from the Get Ready, Get Thru resource)

With the ‘near-miss’ flood event during April still in our minds here is some information to be aware of before, during and after a flood event.

Floods are New Zealand’s number one hazard in terms of frequency, losses and declared civil defence emergencies. Floods can cause injury and loss of life, damage to property and infrastructure, loss of stock, and contamination of water and land.

Floods are usually caused by continuous heavy rain or thunderstorms but can also result from tsunami and coastal storm inundation. A flood becomes dangerous if:

• the water is very deep or travelling very fast
• the floods have risen very quickly
• the floodwater contains debris, such as trees and sheets of corrugated iron

Getting ready before a flood strikes will help reduce damage to your home and business and help you survive.

BEFORE A FLOOD

• If you are new to the district find out if your home or business is at risk from flooding.
• Some of our rural communities have flood evacuation plans and you should make yourselves familiar with these.
• Think about how you can reduce the risk of future flooding to your home or business; and what to do with your pets and livestock if you have to evacuate.
• Know where the closest high ground is and how to get there.
• Develop a Household Emergency Plan remember you need to plan to look after yourself and your loved ones for at least 3 days or more.
• Assemble and maintain your Emergency Survival Items for your home as well as a portable getaway kit.
• Check your insurance policy to ensure you have sufficient cover.
• Like us on Council’s facebook page and subscribe to our twitter feed as instant short messages will be put out through these media channels. More detailed information will be put onto our website – www.rangitikei.govt.nz and posted at Council’s offices and welfare centres (if they have been set up).

DURING A FLOOD OR IF A FLOOD IS IMMINENT

• Put your household emergency plan into action and check your getaway kit. Be prepared to evacuate quickly, if it becomes necessary.
• There is no radio station specific to the Rangitikei, so tune into the regular station you listen to, as emergency management officials may be broadcasting the most appropriate advice for your community and situation.
• If you have a disability or need support, make contact with your support network.
• Where possible, move pets inside or to a safe place, and move stock to higher ground.
• Consider using sandbags to keep water away from your home. Council can provide some of these but if you want to purchase your own you can – from McBean Manawatu Sack Company, 55 Kelvin Grove Road, Palmerston North – phone 06-355 2225
• Lift valuable household items and chemicals as high above the floor as possible.
• Fill bathtubs, sinks and storage containers with clean water in case water becomes contaminated.
• Turn off utilities if told to do so by authorities as it can help prevent damage to your home or community. Unplug small appliances to avoid damage from power surges.
• Do not attempt to drive or walk through floodwaters unless it is absolutely essential.

AFTER A FLOOD

• It may not be safe to return home even when the floodwaters have receded. Continue to monitor Council’s facebook, twitter feeds and website; and listen to your local radio station for civil defence instructions.
• Help others if you can, especially people who may require special assistance.
• Throw away food including canned goods and water that has been contaminated by floodwater.
• Avoid drinking or preparing food with tap water until you are certain it is not contaminated. If in doubt, check with your local council or public health authority.
• Look for and report broken utility lines to appropriate authorities.
• If your property is damaged, take notes and photographs for insurance purposes. If you rent your property, contact your landlord and your contents insurance company as soon as possible.

It’s been great to see some sun over the two weeks after such a wet start to April. Our parks have come through this wet spell well, however if we receive any further significant rainfall in the coming weeks it will make our parks, berms and reserves difficult to mow due to waterlogging.

Anzac Day Preparation
This settled period of weather has enabled us to get our memorial sites ready for Anzac day quickly. This is always one of the highlights of the year for our team. The team take a lot of pride in ensuring all our sites across the region are looking good and that the expectations of our local RSA’s have been met.

During 2016 we replaced a large garden with a new lawn at the war memorial in Hunterville. It’s been fantastic to see crosses put out on this lawn this year. The crosses are visible to everyone that travels along State Highway 1.

The flower gardens were changed at Marton Park and at Bulls war memorial. It has been a bit disappointing that our flower plants could not continue to flower to Anzac day this year. We choose plants that can continue flowering well past the 25th of April, however with the heavy rain the plants had been too badly damaged to leave in.

During May you will see our new plantings start to flower, we have planted Poppy’s, Primula, Polyanthus, Pansy’s and edgings of Parsley. The Polyanthus are a larger growing variety and are yellow, purple and red.

Work to watch for during May

Sportsfields
Our sportsfields have come through the summer extremely well with very little summer wear. We have deferred the autumn fertiliser application due to the significant grass growth we are currently experiencing. We will apply fertiliser to all sportsfields during late autumn or early winter in the form of a slow release black urea. This fertiliser is 50 percent nitrogen and will keep the grass growing during winter.

We will also verti-drain the main fields in the region. Vetri-draining reduces compaction, helps with soil aeration and root development of the grass. This was completed in autumn 2016 with great success and some very good feedback from our sporting clubs.

Hunterville State Highway 1 Gardens
As mentioned in the last article these gardens have now had their soil levels topped up ready for planting during May. At present we are designing the plantings in line with NZTA guidelines. These guidelines mainly refer to trees that can be planted along carriageways such as this. It is important that we choose the right tree for these locations.

New Tree Guidelines
Over the last few months we have been working on a significant document for future tree management in our district. For me it has been an important document to produce and will replace a smaller outdated document.

The guidelines cover many aspects of tree care, from approved contractors to historic trees and everything in-between. We have captured areas that are extremely important such as trees near playgrounds. A recent incident in Auckland where children were injured by a falling tree in a local daycare highlighted that we had minimal checks in place to avoid this happening in our playgrounds. We have now had the trees accessed in all our districts playgrounds and pruned as required. However we will now commission an annual report by a skilled arborist to highlight any risks to the Park users from our trees.
This guideline will go to the Council during May for comment.

Marton Street Furniture
During the next eight weeks restoration work will be undertaken on the Marton CBD street furniture. The staged removal of seats from the CBD and Civic Square will see the seats removed, painted, timber slats replaced with renewable hardwood, strapping repaired before being put back into their current locations.

This project will take a few weeks to complete as the restoration needs to be done well. Once completed the seats will look like new and help lift the appearance of Broadway and Civic Square. We apologise for any inconvenience caused during the restoration of the seating.

Thanks to Council’s roading team for working with us to make this happen.

Potential Rainfall Event on the 4th of April
One last item from me and that is to thank my team for the work they did during the recent storm events. Although we had a near miss with flooding, the team dug in and worked long hours on the 4th of April to ensure if we did get any flooding we could help lessen the impact on Marton’s CBD and flooding hotspots.

I would also like to thank the residents that helped fill and disperse sandbags until late at night. Sandbag filling is a heavy job and with so many locals offering to help it made this job go quickly, it also made for some light hearted banter which everyone appreciated.

It’s certainly been a month for wild weather … Rangitikei District was very lucky to have avoided a major event this month but the good news was Council was prepared for it – if it had eventuated.

All indications were that we were going to get an event larger than the 2015 flood, which is why we declared a state of emergency. By doing this it gives us the ability to call in more resources (like the Army and Airforce) for assistance with evacuations, sandbagging, setting up cordons and protecting the property of those that are evacuated. First and foremost Council is concerned for people’s safety after that its property and infrastructure.

We had a good team of people helping with this latest event and we have received some very positive feedback. My thanks goes out to all the staff and the volunteers that put some long hours during our response.

During April we welcomed another 14 citizens to the Rangitikei, we had people from British America, the Philippines, Britain and Samoa. A very warm welcome to our District.

I attended the early morning ANZAC Day commemorations at Hunterville this year, it was certainly a well patronised event. In the afternoon I then attended the Marton event. The numbers that turnout to these events now is fantastic, thanks to the RSA clubs for the work they do in organising these events.

During the month Council heard from people in our community that wanted to speak about their annual plan submissions, we had over 30 people come and present to us. It’s always great to hear from enthusiastic people and listen to their ideas. Thanks to those that came along to speak to us and to everyone that wrote in a submission. Council will be considering all these during May and will adopt its final Annual Plan for 2017/18 at the end of May.

Remember that if you have something you want to speak to me about I’m always happy to meet with you.