With uncertain times, support and buy local wherever possible. Photo / Palmerston North City Council
OPINION:
At the beginning of every year, it is always a privilege to deliver the annual State of the City address to combined members of the Rotary Club of Palmerston North and the Manawatū Business Chamber.
Members of these organisations do a great deal behind the scenes to advance the city.
During this presentation, I get to set the scene for the coming year, starting with an outline of council and regional progress from the previous 12 months.
This overview includes Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Infometrics and city statistics covering a range of social and economic activities from building consents, infrastructural works and roading to housing, retail spending and employment.
With the advent of Omicron, the country entering phase 3 of the red traffic light response, and now with the outbreak of war in Ukraine, I cannot emphasise enough that 2022 is not going to be a normal year.
However, indicators are showing our city and its surrounding region have not only weathered the Covid storm in relatively buoyant shape, but we are also well-placed to see it out better than most.
That's largely thanks to our diverse economic base, which is now being headlined by numerous public and commercial construction projects and underwritten by high export prices for our agri-sector primary and food products.
Extensive capital investment in our region over the next decade, which includes transport, distribution, healthcare, aged care, defence and education, should ensure we emerge from the Covid and geo-political challenges in relatively good shape.
Among these are Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū Tararua Highway, the P-8 Poseidon project at Ōhakea, and the $450 million Mercury Energy Turitea Windfarm now approaching completion.
There's the large Central Healthcare facility for Milson Line, Metlifecare rest and retirement home extension on Carroll and Ngata streets, the 300-unit Summerset retirement village at Stoney Creek Rd, while work has finally begun on the new $370m acute services block at Palmerston North Hospital.
There are plenty of other projects in the pipeline contributing to the biggest burst of development for the city since the 1980s.
During this expansion the city has become more valuable, although Palmy's average house price of $754,212 remains well below the national average of $1,028,097.
For a comparable city with our extensive public amenities and services, this still represents value for anyone looking for work and other opportunities here.
Other factors contributing to an optimistic outlook include an extensive workforce of essential staff who are helping keep the wheels of commerce turning.
That's not to minimise the pain some sectors of our business community are going through – specifically in our hospo, retail, education, events, entertainment, visitor and accommodation sectors.
The curtailment of our summer events programme – Festival of Cultures, Superstock Teams Champs, Central District Field Days and NZ Rural Games among them – is going to have further unfortunate impacts on those mostly locally owned small and medium-sized businesses. So, please support local businesses as often as you can!
The council is making its own contribution to city viability, with significant infrastructure works completed at the Cloverlea intersection, and now continuing along Pioneer Highway, and on Summerhill Dr.
Pioneer is down to one lane with diversions in place until May as the Amberley Ave intersection is completed for the new Countdown supermarket, and wastewater upgrades along the route are carried out.
Wastewater upgrades to Church St should be just about completed, while recently commenced day-and-night double-shift drainage works beneath Summerhill Dr are expected to last the rest of March.
Please exercise patience during the traffic holdups and noise these projects create, while making use of alternative routes where you can. Details can be found at pncc.govt.nz/roadworks.
A cause for celebration has been the success of the summer water use strategy.
I want to thank Palmerston North residents for wholeheartedly embracing the voluntary odds and evens, every second evening restriction on unattended sprinklers and hoses for lawns and gardens. You've been wonderfully cooperative.
The strategy ends on April 3, and is saving the city an average of 1 million litres of water a day.
• Grant Smith is the Mayor of Palmerston North.