Newspaper Article 1994 – Group to find home for HB archives

Group to find home for HB archives

By Mike Tod
Staff reporter, Hastings

A committee will be formed to plan an organisation to set up a home for archives in Hawke’s Bay.

Hastings district councillors yesterday decided to form the committee after historians Patrick Parsons and Lily Baker put a case for somewhere suitable to store records of the region’s history.

Ms Baker said there was an urgent need to start planning for a permanent home for Hawke’s Bay archives. It must be of the highest standard, so nothing would be lost to other institutions.

Mayor Jeremy Dwyer said Hawke’s Bay was trailing other regions in not adequately looking after records of its history.

“The time has come to do something. We should give our blessing to this. But it is going to be a slow process,” Mr Dwyer said.

Cr Terry Coxon said local authorities needed to get together and establish a funding  base for the project.

Fewer chiefs urged

A programme to help Hawke’s Bay firms expand might be top heavy with managers district council economic adviser Steve Breen said yesterday.

Mr Breen, in a report to the council’s resource management committee, said Business Grow could run efficiently with a simple structure.

The programme would see two people employed to provide free advice to businesses.

Assistance may be legal, financial, marketing, organisational or managerial.

The annual budget for the programme would be $154,000. Funding was initially expected to come from the Community Employment Group, Telecom and other big firms.

Local authorities might be asked to contribute.

Offices would be set up in Hastings and Napier.

Mr Breen said Bill Logan from the YMCA Enterprise Centre and the Napier City Council’s enterprise officer, Ron Massey, were launching Business Grow in Hawke’s Bay.

Councillors decided to support the programme in principle.

Cr Coxon and Cr David Law said they were concerned about the structure of the programme.

Turn-right gap likely

A gap is likely to be created in the median barrier at the intersection of St Aubyn and Warren St to allow traffic travelling west to turn right.

Hastings district councillors yesterday gave their support to the proposal, which had been put forward by Warren St businesses concerned about a drop in the trade as a result of the median barrier.

Engineering staff will tell councillors within a few weeks whether the proposal is practicable. Division manager David Fraser said he did not foresee problems.

Bookings to continue

The council will continue booking motorists for expired registrations and warrants of fitness.

Since November, the council’s parking officers have been helping police with enforcement, handing out an average 266 infringement notices a month.

Resource management division manager Murray Buchanan said $86,250 of notices had been processed. The council was entitled to receive at least half ($43,125) of this.

Mr Buchanan said staff were coping with the extra work.

Mayor Jeremy Dwyer said staff had achieved a tremendous result.

Date set for land talks

The council’s latest debate on whether to use fertile land in Lyndhurst Rd for housing will take place on August 25.

In the meantime, landowners will be surveyed and a report prepared covering drainage and sewerage issues. Another report will be compiled listing the impact of the impending decision on a regional hospital and the confirmation of Flaxmere College’s form one-to-seven status.

$5000 for Women’s Rest

The community services division will provide up to $5000 to finish fitting out the public rooms of the Women’s Rest. There will be an after-hours hire charge of $25 for the rooms.

Photo caption – Cr Coxon… funding base needed.