Kawakawa's main street - where a state highway and a railway line famously share space - is in for some much-needed safety improvements. Photo / Supplied
Three Mid North towns will become safer and more pedestrian-friendly thanks to a funding injection from a national road improvement programme.
Projects in Kawakawa, Moerewa and Kaikohe were among the winners in the second round of funding from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency's Innovating Streets for People programme.
The programme aims to help councils and communities co-design and retrofit streets to reduce vehicle speeds and create more space for people.
Each project will test layouts, materials and design options which, if successful, can be applied to permanent street upgrades.
The projects are:
■ The Kawakawa Safety and Streetscape Improvement Project will trial four initiatives contained in the Twin Coast Discovery Highway Township Plan, including road markings and surface treatments to slow traffic on Gillies Rd; a mainstreet link to the cycle trail; a trial closure of Albert St where it meets Gillies Rd; and new seating, plantings and pou. The aim is to help the town become more people-friendly and respond to increasing growth and safety challenges.
■ Moerewa Safer Streets will see the Far North District Council and community working together to trial options along Ōtiria Rd to reduce speeds and provide safe access to schools and marae. It will include traffic calming measures and ''placemaking projects'' at eight locations, while new road markings and pou will slow traffic, tell stories and boost pride.
■ Tai Tokerau Kaikohe Safe Streets will involve the council and community co-designing and trailing temporary solutions in five key locations to reduce traffic speeds, provide safer routes to and from schools, and encourage economic growth by better linking the town with Pou Herenga Tai Twin Coast Cycle Trail. Plans include traffic calming measures at five gateway roads to the town; replacing some mainstreet parking with ''pop-up parks'' and hang-out spaces; improving connections to the cycle trail; and te reo painted on the streets.
Mayor John Carter said NZTA support went beyond just funding road safety projects.
"This programme helps us to work more directly with our communities so we can quickly create temporary or semi-permanent changes to streetscapes. Communities are encouraged to re-imagine their streets and together we can test out design options to see what works best."
Other worthy community-led projects, including two in Kerikeri and one in Kaikohe, did not receive funding in this round.
Carter said he hoped those groups would continue to refine their plans and work with the council.
Nationwide the second, final round was worth $10.1 million, bringing the total number of projects up to 72 projects. They are due to be delivered by June 2021.
A show at the Turner Centre this Friday by Kerikeri farmer turned chart-topping social rocker Merv Pinny has sold out — but we've managed to get out hands on two double tickets to give away.
If you want one of these precious double tickets all you have to do is drop us an email at baynews@northernadvocate.co.nz by 8am tomorrowmorning. Make sure you include your full name, phone number and address.
We'll draw two lucky winners at random and call them tomorrow.
Social distancing and contact tracing will apply at the show. More tickets will be released if the Covid alert level is reduced.
Pinny quit farming in 2016 to dedicate himself full-time to music. Since then he's notched up some international successes, notably with OB Can you hear the children cry?, a song about the refugee crisis.
More recently he's had a number one on the South African iTunes top 200 with Pink Elephants, while an acoustic version of Prisoner, recorded during lockdown, is being heavily played on Spotify.
Waitangi Treaty Grounds is marking Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week) with a series of events and a new children's discovery trail.
The trail, in te reo and English, will be given to families on arrival and has three versions aimed at different age groups.
A powhiri workshop was held yesterday and this evening Whare Waka Café will host a Māori cuisine night with three main dishes to choose from, matched with beverages and dessert tasting platters.
Waitangi's resident kaiwhakairo will hold an introduction to carving workshop on September 20 with an intermediate level workshop for those with previous experience the following day.
Bookings are essential; email rsvp@waitangi.org.nz.
Pou tikanga Māori Mori Rapana said te reo me ōna tikanga was central to everything that happened at the Treaty Grounds.
''We have worked hard to normalise and encourage use of te reo Māori throughout the Waitangi Treaty Grounds experience and are 100 per cent committed to ensuring its survival. In the words of Sir James Henare, 'Ko te reo te mauri o te mana Māori — the language is the life force of the mana Māori'. Without our language, what do we have?''
Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori runs from September 14-21.
This Saturday Focus Paihia will hold an annual working bee to give the CBD a ''tickle-up'' to make sure it's looking its best before the summer season starts.
The crew will meet at 9am on the Village Green, behind the pharmacy, with the work expected to be wrapped up by 1pm.
Odd jobs to be done include staining, weeding, chopping, moving a mound of topsoil, replenishing pathway gravel and general maintenance.
Anyone who's able to help out should email Heinz Marti on heinzmarti39@gmail.com or text 0274 792 137 so he knows how many are likely to turn up and who to contact if the weather isn't suitable.
If you can bring gloves, gardening tools, a rake or broom, paint brushes and rags, or a wheelbarrow and shovel.
Springbank School's market day, which was to have been held this Sunday in anticipation of a drop in Covid alert level, has been postponed until October 18.
Assuming the country is at level 1 by then you will be able to celebrate/commiserate the result of the election the previous day by checking out the clever products Springbank pupils have devised as part of their real-life business studies.
The market, on Waimate North Rd, Kerikeri, will run from 11am-2pm. We'll have more information closer to the date.
A food and musical festival which was to have taken place in Paihia next month has been postponed until early next year due to the Covid pandemic.
The It! Bay of Islands Food and Wine Festival was scheduled for October 3 on the Village Green with award-winning acoustic covers band White Chapel Jak as the main act. Ticket holders have been contacted with an offer of a refund or a transfer to a new date. The new date, in February, March or April, will be chosen in the next few weeks.
White Chapel Jak was the support act at last year's festival but completely stole the show with their energy and Kiwi-as brand of humour.
The latest art exhibition at the Turner Centre is by Ōpua artist Samuel Earp, whose oil landscapes are painted on location around New Zealand, Australia and his native Guernsey, one of the British Channel Islands.
Many of Earp's paintings feature dramatic South Island mountain scenes but Northland gets a look in too. When not painting Earp teaches others to paint through his YouTube channel and website.
The exhibition can be viewed from 9am-4pm Monday to Friday and during events until October 28.
The Aroha Music Society is bringing Richard Mapp back to the Bay of Islands on September 27, for a concert featuring work by Haydn, Schumann, Liszt and, on the 250th anniversary of his birth, Beethoven's Sonata in A flat Op 110. The concert, on the Steinway grand piano the John Dalton auditorium at Kerikeri's Turner Centre, will start at 4pm.
A free seminar about macular degeneration — a common, age-related cause of sight loss – will be held from 10-11.30am on September 26 at the Turner Centre. Call Macular Degeneration NZ on 0800 622852 or email info@mdnz.org.nz to register.
Astute readers may have noticed the date was missing from last week's snippet about a sign language lesson at the Treaty Grounds. The session with veteran sign language teacher Eddie Hokianga will take place on September 20, from 1-2.30pm in the new Tahuaroa Function Centre. Free for Friends of Waitangi and experience pass holders; register by emailing rsvp@waitangi.org.nz.
• Email peter.degraaf@nzme.co.nz if you have any news you'd like to see in Bay News.
Initial construction work on the next section is set to begin by the end of next year.