Lament of the long lost shovel

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 545, 19 July 1994, Page 4

Lament of the long lost shovel

• With reference to the article in last weeks Bulletin headed "Road works not up to standard" from a report of the Ruapehu District Council's meeting on 24 June, I would like to make a comment on one point in particular, and that is regarding the water tables. The rural roads have for some time certainly deteriorated, due I think to the lack of regular ordinary maintenance. Where are the workmen with the good old fashioned tool - the shovel. The shovel is a wonderful piece of machinery and if handled correctly can be a thing of wonder. The shovel can clean out water tables far better than a blade on a

grader and can certainly get the level to what is required. In the hilly country that makes up our rural area slips, dropouts, floodingetc have always caused problems for local bodies, and it has been proved for many many years in the past that if the water tables are cleaned out regularly this helps alleviate some of the problems. i.e. little slips come down and block the water tables, the water banks up and in turn weakens the bank where the blockage is, and flows over the road causing either more blockages on the other side of the road or dropouts. The weakened bank then col-

lapses and causes another blockage and so it repeats itself. This is where the shovel comes into its own (connected to a person of eourse). If these water tables are regularly cleaned, not all but certainly a lot of these problems that are causing the rural roads to deteriorate, would be solved. When our previous Waimarino County was in place permanent roadmen were employed at Karioi, Ruatiti and Pipiriki areas and these men did a wonderful job and covered all the roads in those areas keeping water tables cleaned out, slips

cleared and other maintenance up to date and their only tools were the shovel and wheelbarrow. I am sure that the narro wing of the country roads , as stated in the article, is also due to the blocked water tables as are many of the other problems as well. Of course I am no expert and certainly stand to be corrected. If the report is correct in the Bulletin that the Ruapehu Construction are at fault with road works not being up to standard then someone must be accountable. Surely someone within the company must have known what was or was not being done. If they cannot run this company

properly then as the old saying goes ... "If you can't stand the heat in the kitchen - get out". If the construction company is short of staff, why can't they take on the responsibility of using people who have been give community work by the courts, and get them out on the roads and give them all one of the wonderful tools 'the shovel'. This would be a very responsible act of the council and the construction company and it would certainly help clear up the backlog of maintenance roadworks that are urgently required on all our rural roads, as well as making the people who have been given com-

munity service actually do community service under supervision.

Faith

Wise