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Rangitikei District has no confirmed Covid-19 cases, but it is still feeling the impact of the lockdown period.
Rangitikei Mayor Andy Watson said the district has, and will continue for a long time to have, a number of unemployed people, due to the economic impact of the pandemic.
He saidlike other councils around the country, Rangitikei District Council is receiving requests for zero rate increases.
On April 20, the council will meet via Zoom for its monthly meeting where it will discuss what aid packages it can provide, taking into consideration essential and non-essential workers and the council's position on rating for both groups.
With a number of people unemployed in the Rangitikei district, the council will look at work programmes they can fire up to get people back to work. Photo / Bevan Conley
But Watson said, for the time being, he will not jump into a position and say there will be a zero rate increase.
"I am confident council will look at putting things in place so that if somebody is in a financial struggle we can look at some aid around that, so whether that is by saying we're not going to put penalties in place, those sorts of things."
Watson said a large number of people were calling for a tight lid on council spending and he completely understood their point of view.
"But we've also got government and contractor unions saying we actually need people back at work so, please, work that needs to be done needs to continue and the Government are saying 'what work programmes can you fire up to get people back employed'."
During the lockdown, council staff have been working remotely from home while a welfare team has been working at the council every week day and is on call on weekends.
Watson said they have been supporting welfare through several organisations, including Marton Christian Welfare Society and Mokai Patea Services.
Rangitikei District Mayor Andy Watson has praised all essential services in the District for their efforts during the lockdown. Photo / Bevan Conley
He said he is very grateful for and appreciative of the work essential services have been carrying out within the district to support the community during the past few weeks.
"I would really like to thank a lot of people out there that are not council staff, like the staff at Countdown and New World who are doing an amazing job of keeping that separation."
The district had a large number of people who have come back from overseas travel to self-isolate but there have been no issues so far, Watson said.
Although it was reassuring to have no confirmed cases within the district, he urged the community "don't blow it with complacency".
"We're just over halfway through a lockdown process and the risk is people think the numbers keep dropping, we're fine, I'll go hunting and I'll go fishing and I'll move out of my bubble, and as the Prime Minister quite rightly points out it only takes one to make a new cluster somewhere so that's the immediate risk."
