To the gardeners' defence

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 313, 14 November 1989, Page 3

To the gardeners' defence

In response to the letter from Alan Murdie last week, may I make these points:

I'm glad that he enjoys a trip to Raetihi as the people here are very proud of their township. Grass verges, well-trimmed hedges etc are maintained, in the main, by the residents here. In fact he may have even noticed the business people weeding, planting and growing flowers in the g arden plots in the main street. In fact my foreman (incidentally , an Ohakune resident) remarked that 90% of Raetihi ratepayers and residents mow their own verges whereas in Ohakune, 75% don't! May I also point out that the spraying season has not yet begun, so many untidy ditches and corners in Ohakune have still to be treated.

We simply do not have the manpower to handweed many of the scruffy areas in Ohakune, and there are many! I had planned, when I took control of the parks and reserves in Ohakune, to install some nicely grassed areas and planned gardens but at the first works meeting that I attended for the new district, I was directed by the then Councillor Bruce Thomson to not convert Ohakune into another Raetihi - he wanted Ohakune to stay as it was. This was witnessed by the District Engineer, District Manager, the Mayor and a number of other councillors. I think that, had Mr Murdie approached the district engineers with his concerns, rather than making snide remarks through the paper, he would have found out that Ohakune gets the lion's share of my workers' time and energy and that Raetihi only stays well maintained and looks lavishly attended for two

reasons. 1/ It started that way and 2/ The attitude of the people in Raetihi is that extra work by the council would require extra rates. I suggest to Mr Murdie that a more constructive way of filling in his time would be to weed the area outside his own shop.

Craig Ryland Reserves & Parks Supervisor (South) Ruapehu District Council