Dannevirke Christmas parade funding a concern at Community Board

Funding is in question for Dannevirke's Christmas parade. Photo / Dave Murdoch

The programme for Dannevirke’s Christmas parade may have to be reviewed as Dannevirke Community Board cannot support it with funding.

Community board member Terry Hynes explained at this month’s meeting that some years ago the board was responsible for organising and managing the Christmas parade.

However, it relinquished that, asking the Chamber of Commerce to take over.

“The agreement at the time was that the Community Board and [Tararua District] Council would fund the traffic management for the parade,” Hynes said.

“That’s my understanding.”

But with a reduction in funding from the council to the board, it could no longer offer support for traffic management, which could cost around $5000.

Hynes said without that assistance, the chamber would have to review the whole process, including downgrading the programme or reducing prize money.

Board member Ron Wallace suggested opening it up to the Dannevirke community in the hope a local organisation or business would step up to help.

Hynes said the parade did have a major sponsor but it was the “icing on the cake” to have prize money.

“It’s been an extreme success for many years now.”

He said the chamber would now have to look at how the parade was going to be funded.

Community vehicle

A number of other issues were discussed in the meeting, including funding for the Dannevirke Community Vehicle Trust.

“Like every organisation, we’re facing issues with funding,” Hynes said.

There were some issues with organisations reducing their funding for local schemes such as the trust.

He said Horizons Regional Council was a major funder for the community vehicle trust throughout the Tararua District as part of their transport budget.

“We’ve had a little increase there, but nothing that’s going to offset the budget deficit we’re looking at at the moment.”

Driver licensing

Hynes said people could get the paperwork for their licence done at the AA, which was meant to set up at the Hearing Association rooms in McPhee St at least twice a month.

However, he said last month the AA only came once.

Those wanting to do paperwork for licensing at any other time would need to go to Waipukurau or Palmerston North.

Hynes said he had met with Wairarapa MP Mike Butterick, who had also talked to the chief executive of the AA with the hope of improving the service.

“We’re looking at making changes in that area.”

A depiction of the Glengarry Soldier Settlement Heritage site in Dannevirke.

Glengarry heritage site

Progress has been made on the Glengarry memorial.

The heritage site in Armstrong Rd was to pay tribute to the efforts more than 100 years ago of Glengarry soldier settlers to make settlement farms more financially viable, and the site would be a place of reflection and a reminder of the history of the area.

The working group behind the project had successfully applied for Pub Charity funding and plans had been made to do the hot mix tar-sealing on the site, weather permitting.

Wackrow Awards

The board discussed the cancellation of this year’s Wackrow Memorial Youth Awards.

Hynes said it was a difficult decision to make, but the requirements of having more than three people nominated were not met.

He said that wasn’t to say there wasn’t enough good work done on behalf of the community board.

“We tried to promote it as best as we could.”

While the situation was disappointing, it was noted that it was difficult to get such things off the ground at the moment.

“We need to review the whole thing and how we do it.”

A suggestion was made that the awards could be tied in with another award, but the awards were specifically for community service.

Welcome signs

The potential location of welcome signs to Dannevirke also came under discussion, with a suggestion of one being at Oringi Rd and one at Otanga Rd.

However, Wallace felt that was a bit too far out and the signs should be brought in closer.