Deferring Mainstreet plans seen as advantageous

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 15, Issue 689, 3 June 1997, Page 8

Deferring Mainstreet plans seen as advantageous

Much of the discussion which took place among Ruapehu District Council councillors about Mainstreet at their annual plan meeting centred on the proposals for Taumarunui 's programme. The Mainstreet programmes for Ohakune and Raetihi received only brief attention when Cr Bob Peck said that he supported the Taumarunui Mainstreet project because that experience would help the two Waimarino townships when it was decided to proceed with their own Mainstreet programmes. In 1996 the Ruapehu District Council allocated a sum of $1.5 million.towards the upgrade of Taumarunui' s assets in support of its Mainstreet proposals which had been developed by the Taumarunui community. These proposals included development of a 'town square' and other features in Taumarunui 's main thoroughfare,

Hakiaha Street, and these were supported in principle by the Ruapehu District Council. However, Council' s concerri about the level of expenditure and the proposed funding mechanisms caused Council to revise their initial commitment to a full-seale funding of the proposals. This followed discussions at an earlier meeting about the high cost to rural ratepayers of a valua-tion-based funding system for the project. Ohura Cr Joe Murphy pointed out then that Ohura ratepayers, for example, would be paying a high percentage of the Taumarunui project's costs, while commercial property owners in the area, who would get the first direct benefit of the project, would have only been paying about five per cent of the costs. Because of those discussions, the council resolved to review the funding system for Mainstreet projects to lessen the burden on rural ratepayers. At their annual plan meeting, the council decided to approve a lesser level of funding and limited objectives. According to the council' s report on the communitybased proposals for the development of Mainstreet programmes in Ohakune and Raetihi, there has been "no significant progress" over the past year. This was not seen as a disadvantage to 'Winning Waimarino' (which was promoting the Mainstreet programmes in Ohakune and Raetihi). Councillors felt the experience of Taumarunui could benefit those projects proposed for the Waimarino' s two townships. A recommendation that provision of $50,000 be set aside to fund the cost of design input into the Waimarino Mainstreet programmes during the 1997/98 year was approved with the intention that initial physieal works should commence in the 1998/99 financial year. In this way, accurate estimates would be available for incorporation intn the. annual nlan for 1998/99.