$24,000 of council funds earmarked for Waimarino Mainstreet project

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 567, 20 December 1994, Page 5

$24,000 of council funds earmarked for Waimarino Mainstreet project

Ruapehu District Councillors last Friday agreed to grants to the district' s two Mainstreet projects totalling $24,000 to Winning Waimarino and $20,000 to Taumarunui Mainstreet. However the decision is not set in concrete as the money would not be finally allocated until the 1995-96 annual planning process is worked through. Also, the approval won on just two votes. The grants would be for $10,000 for administration to Taumarunui Mainstreet with Winning Waimarino also receiving $10,000 towards administration costs, plus $10,000 to Taumarunui Mainstreet to go towards the salary of a co-ordinator and $14,000 to Winning Waimarino for the proposed design concepts for Raetihi and Ohakune. CrTony Hawkins said ratepayers would feel they were paying three times for the same thing by supporting Mainstreet. (The council also provides funds to the Tau-

marunui Development Incorporation and has a marketing division). In countering a call for some amalgamation of such groups, Cr Graham Cosford said Mainstreet was a finite project (in the case of Taumarunui — run by 'Protaum') and that other projects were carried out by ProTaum. "If they amalgamated both functions would be watered down," he said. Benefits already Cr Ellen Gould said the community was benefiting already from Winning Waimarino sponsored events. She said the Carnival of Wheels would directly benefit the Ohakune Primary School and be their biggest fund-raiser for 1995. Cr Bob Peck said the council had to be involved in marketing and promotion and had to "go all the way". Cr Hawkins said they were talking about small individual amounts but that such grants added up to a lot of money, citing the previous agenda item when $25,000 was granted to the Taumarunui Safer Community Council. Council chief executive Cliff Houston said they should consider the cumulative effect on rates. He said the applications represented a 50 per cent increase on last year's allocation. The decision with regard to Winning Waimarino is conditional on them providing an audited set of accounts for their activities. The council heard that the group believed that the set of books they had presented along with their application was audited as that was what they had asked of their accountant. Winning Waimarino co-ordinator Sue Allomes said they were only made aware of the omission that morning. She said the same kind of figures had been presented for other applications over the

past fi ve years without question. She told the council that the audited accounts would be available in January.