Joe Fraser credits kicking his 25-year smoking habit to vaping. Photo / Stephen Parker.
Joe Fraser credits kicking his 25-year smoking habit to vaping. Photo / Stephen Parker.
The Bay of Plenty Times is taking a look back at the stories of 2019. Here's what made headlines in September.
September 3:
One school may ban unvaccinated students from attending the AIMS Games as measles sweeps across the country.
AIMS Games is the biggest tournament of its type inthe Southern Hemisphere with about 11,500 children from 368 schools from around New Zealand and the Pacific expected to take part in Tauranga.
It's expected up to 800 unvaccinated children could be attending this year's event.
A new primary school will be built in the Tauranga suburb of Brookfield catering for almost 600 pupils.
A total $16 million will be spent on relocating and expanding Brookfield School on a new site about 300m down the road from its current Millers Rd address.
Dr Phil Shoemack, pictured at Rotorua Hospital. Photo / Stephen Parker
September 12:
American singer-songwriter Ben Harper will perform at Mount Maunganui as part of a five-date New Zealand tour.
The three-time Grammy Award winner and seven-time nominee, along with his band The Innocent Criminals, will open their tour in New Plymouth on February 21, 2020 before performing in Christchurch, Auckland and Napier before closing with a show at Mount Maunganui's Mount Park on February 29.
The director of the company, property developer Stephen Short, told the Bay of Plenty Times today that he closed Coast Homes down a year ago after it had built all the houses it needed to.
September 15:
There was a time when many places were foggy with cigarette smoke and the smell of stale tobacco hung in the air. Cars, restaurants, bars, and workplaces - all were areas where people could light up as they pleased. But not any more. Smokers have been pushed outside, often enduring the glares and pointed coughs of non-smokers. But with the explosion of vaping, it has suddenly become cool once more to puff away on a little stick. But is vaping safe?
Joe Fraser credits kicking his 25-year smoking habit to vaping. Photo / Stephen Parker.
September 16:
The Government's motel tab for Tauranga's homeless has hit a record $1 million in three months, with one holiday park fielding more than six queries a day from families seeking somewhere to live.
The crisis has been blamed on skyrocketing rents and a shortage of public housing, with a pregnant solo mum telling the Bay of Plenty Times she considered giving up her unborn baby when she was stuck in a motel, before she secured a home for $510 a week.
Marlowe Orr was on the ground for mere seconds before he got up and finished the race. Photo / James Steiner
September 17:
Tauranga is looking to be the likely location for a joint Australasian venture that plans to set up a cannabis cultivation facility to benefit medicinal research.
The Bay of Plenty is being considered as the base for the Greenfield MC NZ research facility, in conjunction with Tauranga-based firm Wepiha Health.
A new dad's life is in pieces after his fiancee died giving birth to their first child at Tauranga Hospital.
The little girl Shelly Cockburn had already named Kora survived, and her grieving father Kirk Ross has given up work to raise the infant without her mother.
Kirk Ross at home in Maketu with his 3-week-old daughter Kora Cockburn-Ross. He is now left to bring up his child with just the help of family. Photo / Alan Gibson
