RESOLVED

THAT the apology of B Potter be received and sustained.

TRDD01/ 8 Johansen/Peters CARRIED

Pursuant to Section 46A(7) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, the Chairman called for late items to be accepted.

RESOLVED

THAT pursuant to Section 46A(7) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, the following late items be accepted for discussion.

- Presentation from Environment Waikato

TRDD01/ 9 Johansen/Rasmussen CARRIED

MEETING HELD 27 FEBRUARY 2001

The minutes of the meeting of the Tirohia-Rotokohu Drainage District Committee held on Tuesday 27 February 2001 are attached.

RESOLVED

THAT the minutes of the meeting of the Tirohia-Rotokohu Drainage District Committee held on Tuesday 27 February 2001 be taken as read and confirmed.

TRDD01/10 Peters/Rasmussen CARRIED

The Drainage Manager advised that the recommendation to the Works Committee to appoint the Hauraki District Council Drainage Manger to represent the Hauraki District Committees on the Waihou Valley Scheme-Piako River Scheme Liaison Committee had been rejected. The Drainage Manager would continue to attend the meetings as an observer.

The Drainage Overseer reported that there had been a couple of blockages in the Upper Siphon and had been cleaned by hand. The trees along the bank were a continuing problem. There was concern that the property owner had responsibility to clean the siphon if the trees remained. The Drainage Manager would deal with this issue under the Drainage Bylaws.

RESOLVED

THAT the property owner be advised that of his responsibility to keep the Upper Siphon clean if the trees remained.

TRDD01/11 Peters/Rasmussen CARRIED

DRAINAGE MANAGER’S REPORT (45.697.999)

The Drainage Manager’s report was attached for the Committee’s consideration

RESOLVED

THAT the Drainage Manager’s report be received.

TRDD01/12 Johansen/Peters CARRIED

Tables of the drains sprayed during the period were presented.

Tables of the drains machine cleaned to the end of April 2001 were presented.

A summary of the pump hour’s operation for the current year was presented for member’s information.

Following problems with the operation of the Mill Road pump in early May, the Chairman and Drainage Manager attended a meeting at Environment Waikato to review the situation. The pump start probe levels were to be reviewed.

The Drainage Manager outlined the issues discussed at the meeting.

Representatives of Environment Waikato would attend the meeting to further report on the pump operation, probe setting, and the progress of the diesel generation installation. The Opukeko Drainage District Committee who operate the other pump to be converted to diesel power (Stocks Pump) had been invited to attend the presentation, later in the meeting.

Comment was made that care needed to be taken not to lower the probe levels unnecessarily.

The Drainage Manager advised that the month of May 2001 had been one of the wettest months experienced for some time.

The Drainage Rate Review Committee met on 11 April 2001. Unfortunately there was not a full attendance of the representatives. The Committee directed the separate Committee’s to review their internal classifications, with particular reference to areas that received benefit but were not rated, and to those areas which received similar levels of service, but which were classified according to an obsolete system.

From research given and taking in the existing boundaries, there were areas that had classifications that did not stack up to today’s environment. Areas that were B and C classifications that were made 100 years ago when they were in scrub were now prime dairy land, but were still paying a lesser rate. Differences on each side of the road needed to be looked at and the same rate paid as the same level of service was received. The areas of land that was classified D, needed to be looked at to see if they warranted a classification change. There were other areas that did not pay drainage rates but received service. These were some of the anomalies that needed sorting out. The Rate Review Committee was looking at having one classification for the whole drainage area. This would not make much difference to rates. Exactly where the drainage boundaries were needed to be established.

The Drainage Manager commented that the TRDD Committee needed to take a look at their area so that they were comfortable when making a recommendation to the Rating Review Committee. This should take place prior to the July Rate Review meeting.

The Committee agreed to meet on Thursday 7 June 2001 at 10.00 am in the Hauraki Room to look at the boundary maps and then have a tour of the Tirohia-Rotokohu Drainage District.

Another issues that needed to be looked at were small lifestyle blocks paying some sort of a premium.

The Drainage Manager advised that following the subdivision of the property to the north of the Rotokohu Canal east of state highway 26 (Burrows) it was considered that the Tirohia Rotokohu Drainage District should designate the drain from the southern point of the property to the Rotokohu Canal, a distance of approximately 120m. A plan showing the proposed drain to be designated was presented.

After discussion the Committee were in favour of the proposal.

RESOLVED

THAT the portion of drain from the southernmost point of Lot 2 of the subdivision of Lot 13 DPS 13875, to the Rotokohu Canal be designated as a Council drain.

TRDD01/13 Rasmussen/Peters CARRIED

FINANCIAL REPORT

The financial report for the 10 months ended 30 April 2001 was attached for members’ information

RESOLVED

THAT the financial report on the operations of the Tirohia Rotokohu Drainage District Committee for the 10 months to 30 April 2001 be received.

TRDD01/14 Brown/Peters CARRIED

GENERAL BUSINESS

There was no general business.

Mr M Mulholland, Mr K Campbell and Mr O Passau from Environment Waikato and Mr R Hughes, Mr I Wood, Mr B King and Mrs G Munro of the Opukeko Drainage District Committee attended the meeting at 11.30 am.

The members from Environment Waikato addressed the meeting and updated them on the progress with the installation of diesel generators at Stocks and Mill Road Stations.

Mr Mulholland advised that the installation of the diesel pumps would be completed this year. Work at the Mill Road site had commenced and it was hoped to have the pumps installed and operating by mid July. The Stocks Pump would be a little later due to a need to change the designation and the works would be started as soon as possible.

With the proposed diesel generation there was a need to discuss energy costs. An overhead of a table of the costs involved to Environment Waikato and Hauraki District Council for uncontrolled, controlled and diesel generators, for Mill Road Pump No 2 and Stocks Pump was shown. These costs were per annum.

Mr Passau advised what the costs for the Mill Road pump would be. IN effect there would be a return to the energy costs of 5 years ago. This amounts to a 50% increase in the power charges to the drainage district.

Environment Waikato - $46,0000 (annualised), $11,500 (diesel Difference)

Drainage Committee - $3,000 (present) $1,500 (reinstated costs)

It was expected that this would result in more reliable pumping. The big pump station at Mill Road would be run on diesel and the small pump station run on power.

Mr Mulholland explained the time clock system that the No 1 pump at Mill Road would be run on.

The General Manager outlined the history for the reasons behind the split of the charges.

His Worship commented that it seemed to be an extremely good offer.

Comment was made that if a major improvement in reliability could be achieved then the increase was justifiable.

Members of the Opukeko Drainage Committee, His Worship the Mayor and the General Manager left the meeting at 12.20 pm.

Mr Campbell gave a presentation to the Committee on Environment Waikato’s recommended probe levels for Pump No 1 and Pump No 2 at Mill Road. The general lowering was approximately 0.5m, and a return to the No 1 pump being the duty pump.

The Chairman thanked the representatives for their presentation.

The Drainage Manager gave an update on the recent Waihou-Piako Liaison Committee meeting.

There were no issues that would have a direct effect on the Tirohia-Rotokohu Drainage Committee.

The meeting closed at 12.55 pm.

CONFIRMED

J M Hill