ump it yourselves Oratia!
Council won’t pay.
After a long smelly summer of seepage, repairs and bad smells ,on the children’s playground. The septic pump finally broke at the Oratia Halls for good. The R&R were lead to believe the Council Property Department were replacing it. Instead they put a red alarm overflow alarm on it and put the cover back on leading us to believe it was fixed. And so it broke AGAIN!
The inadequate Oratia Hall Septic Pump , which was installed by council only 2 years ago, has now been replaced by the Oratia R&R with a new macerating pump at our cost (5k). (Macerating grinds up the mess before pumping it.)
Important Reminder: Don’t put Baby Wipes in the toilet please. Even the new grinding pump doesn’t deal with baby wipes. Those things are indestructible. Please put them in the lady care bins provided.
Oratia R&R were leveraged into replacing it with community money because we weren’t prepared to risk the health and safety of the children who use the playground and council forced our hand.
Why are you (the people of Oratia) paying for the pump at a council owned public facility? Does this represent a change in thinking from the Council? Is council still funding other projects on Oratia’s halls, like roofs and painting and other capital works or is this another cut of council services? Why only us? Where did the community facilities budget for 2013 go ? How should we pay for this septic pump and maintenance?
A bit difficult seeing our minimal Halls and Maintenance fund of 3k per hall per annum has been cut (we can now only apply for a discretionary fund for maintenance which has a 5k cap, and so then can’t apply for genuinely discretionary projects). And seeing we are no longer eligible for the Heritage Fund (cut) which we have previously been awarded.
It’s an ongoing drama which has to do with a DODGY LEASE AGREEMENT the R&R signed WITH COUNCIL. The understanding of the Oratia signatories was that Oratia would gift the buildings ( built by the volunteer labour of the Settlers and owned by the community) in exchange for 1$ from Council and a loan (which Oratia paid back) and council’s ongoing maintenance support . Community would be doing small interior maintenance, and picking up rubbish in the grounds, and managing the bookings at the buildings, and Council owning the buildings and doing major painting and cap-ex projects and maintaining the exterior . But – they stiffed us on the fine print. *Premises * they say is not the commonly accepted buildings. At the *Premises * is the land AND the buildings and we are responsible for the lot. What the *&%&^%&^? So they claim we gave them the halls for 1$ and in exchange are still responsible for all the maintenance ? Who would do that deal. But they do maintenance occasionally – outside paint, roof – if they feel like it . Confused yet?
It’s a mess. Clearly it needs to be sorted…. We look forward to sorting this with our Local Board to a more acceptable and fair standard. They need to do the Decent thing by this community. The halls are part of our cultural heritage. They are part of our history.
And community facilities and the property dept need to know that we won’t be forced off our lease with funding and maintenance cuts. We’ve been stiffed once.
Council needs to treat small rural communities fairly!
We would like this sorted! It’s a waste of both the council and ratepayers time!
****UPDATE – 26/5/14 WHAT RESPONSE DID WE GET FROM OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES ON THE LOCAL BOARD ABOUT THIS. WHAT SUPPORT?? WHAT ANSWERS TO OUR REQUESTS FOR REIMBURSEMENT. NONE. WE HAVE HAD NO RESPONSE FROM THE FUTURE WEST TEAM.
In contrast, Titirangi are getting their public Toilet Facilities upgraded in a new council project. I wonder if they are getting fancy ART PUBLIC TOILET facilities as suggested in the last Titrangi Fringe Newsletter to match the Titirangi Arts Precinct?
Council Minutes (link here) Pg 45 Attachment B Item 14 –