[ad_1]
They may be few in number, but the residents of Amokura Road in Ōpōtiki assure their council that they exist.
Residents have felt invisible after Ōpōtiki City Council turned down a contractor’s offer to seal their way because councilors thought no one lived there.
The decision to reject Delta Contracting’s offer to partially finance the work has left a bad taste in the mouth of both the contractor and residents.
The councilors rejected the offer, against the advice of the staff, as they believed that no one lived on the road and the contractor was only offering to partially fund the sealing to handle the dust and obtain consent of the resources.
READ MORE:
* The council is committed to improving Ōpōtiki CBD
* People ‘get the mickey’ as unpaid fees rise to $ 3.5 million in the Ōpōtiki region
* The Ōpōtiki council has an exclusively female leadership team
However, there are three houses along the way and Delta’s Director of Hiring Paul Blennerhassett said the offer was only intended to be a gesture of goodwill. He said sealing the road offered no advantage to his gravel screening operation.
“I have worked closely with the council since 2011 and it was painful to see some of the comments that were made,” he said.
“I get along well with the staff, but some of the comments made by elected members don’t really need to be discussed. Whether the road is sealed or unsealed, it will not affect us. This was really meant to be a goodwill gesture to the residents of the road. “
Delta Contracting had originally approached the council to see if it would be willing to share, 60/40, the cost of sealing 700 meters of Amokura Road, which is estimated to cost up to $ 100,000.
The council has a loan-funded budget for situations like this, but there has been limited uptake in recent years. It entered partially funded sealing projects with two other contractors earlier this year.
Mr Blennerhassett said his company only dug gravel from the river every three months and transported material to be used in construction of the port by road about six times a day.
During this time, the company wets the road to manage dust, something that Blennerhassett said was much cheaper than sealing the road and much easier, as the tar seal dried quickly and could therefore lift more dust from truck wheels.
“At the end of the day, it will only benefit the residents, and we wanted to do it for them as a gesture of goodwill,” he said.
“It doesn’t take the skin off our noses that they said no, but turning around and making it look like we were trying to scam taxpayers is not right.
Blennerhassett said he focused on hiring local people who were unemployed. Since Covid-19, its staff had grown from 18 to close to 30, and this would not change despite this disturbing episode.
The residents of Amokura Road have also spoken out against the council’s decision and in support of Mr. Blennerhassett.
Moira Anstis said in “the name of the three houses that do not exist” that although the neighbors had not been pushing for the road to be sealed, if it had, they would have been quite pleased.
She said residents didn’t have a bad word to say about the contractor, and he was always careful to keep dust low.
“When they are transporting metal from the river, they pass our farm,” Anstis said.
“So they are always wetting the road continuously. So if anything, it made things better for us because there is no dust now and generally at this time of year our road is very dusty. The contractor has done everything possible to make sure there is no dust for us. He has been treated very unfairly by the council. “
Ms. Anstis said no one from the council had approached her to see if residents would like to seal the road or if dust was a problem.
“The councilman who said we don’t exist actually walks our way,” he said.
“So you would think he would have seen our mailboxes.”
Mayor Lyn Riesterer said she could only support the decision the council made.
He pointed out that there were two council departments involved in the matter and that there was nothing in the report given to councilors that said the sealing was a gesture of goodwill or that there were houses along the way.
“I was intrigued to see that the council members went against the recommendations of the council staff … but that is the democratic process,” he said.
“We made a decision based on the information they gave us.”
Ms Riesterer also felt that the councilors’ comments had been taken out of context.
Councilman Barry Howe said it was unfortunate that residents and the contractor were upset, but that it was nothing personal and that he would not have approved the sealing of the road in any case.
Mr Howe said that if there had been more houses on the road, he would have approved the sealing, but there were people on the coast who were “screaming” for their roads to be sealed.
“Some of the roads have 18 or 20 houses and it’s about prioritizing,” he said.
“He’s nothing against the contractor, he’s a nice guy, but we have to be fair. It is not a personal problem, but simply to show the community that we are fair and that there are places that have more needs. “
