Whakapapa $3.8m sewerage project handed to council

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 589, 6 June 1995, Page 1

Whakapapa $3.8m sewerage project handed to council

Development of Whakapapa' s proposed sewerage system is to be taken on by the Ruapehu District Council. Councillors accepted a submission to the annual plan last Wednesday, whereby the council would take on the development of the scheme in conjunction with a project management team consisting of the council' s Major Projects Group and one representative each from Ruapehu Alpine Lifts, Ruapehu Mountain Clubs Association and the Department of Conservation. The council heard that while the scheme would increase the public debt owned by the Ruapehu District Council, the scheme would be funded solely from rates on users in the Whakapapa and Iwikau villages and the Whakapapa ski area. Special legislation would be required to enable the users to be rated on an equitable basis, stated council engineer Bruce Dobson in his report. "Present provisions contained within the Rating Powers Act enable users to be rated on the basis of land value or on the basis of the number of pans connected to the scheme, neither alternative being particularly suitable for the present situation. The users of the scheme are of a diverse nature. The Chateau is a year-round commercial operation which would make large demands on the scheme

compared with the lodges used on a periodic basis and Ruapehu Alpine Lifts has facilities of both a commercial nature and others limited to its own staff." Whakapapa Village's share of the costs of the scheme would be $0.85 million and Iwikau' s, $2.2 lm. Buill summer 1996 It is proposed that construction would take place during the 1996/97 year. While the authority to proceed with the special legislation and to raise the loan, as well as the "endorsement of the decisions on the nature of the contract" would remain with the council, "it is proposed that the project management group be given authority to co-ordinate and accept tenders within approved levels of finance," stated Mr Dobson. The option favoured by the group that has done the preliminary work is one that has ponds and wetlands on Landcorp land adjacent to State Highway 47. But they will now also investigate the option of connecting the system to the National Park disposal scheme "but only ... if there is direct benefit both to the National Park users ... and Whakapapa users."