Naseby Vision 2011
AGM Chairman’s Report
A good deal of our focus over the past 12 months has been on
activities relating to Naseby’s 150th jubilee in 2013. We’ve
assisted with the establishment of a 150th committee which is ably
led by Stew Francis, who is supported by a number of our committee and other
members of Naseby Vision and from communities across the Maniototo.
We have 3 projects underway which are aligned to the
celebrations. The first of these will be the publication of a substantial
history of Naseby which is being written by today’s guest speaker, Keith Scott
and ably assisted by a local editorial reference group. We’ve been fortunate so
far to have received seed funding for the book from Dr George Mason. George
lives in New Plymouth but has strong family connections with Naseby and you may
recall that he funded the labels on the Recreation Ground trees.
We’ve also been fortunate to have also received $4000 from
the Otago Community Trust for the project. Hilary is a dab hand at writing
funding applications and we have a number of other applications in the pipeline
to ensure that the book is fully funded, by its release in late 2012. It’s our
desire that proceeds from the sale of the book will go to support the Museum,
as an on-going funding source.
Our two other 150th
projects are the Historic Trails project and the completion of the headstone
restoration programme at the Naseby Cemetery. 10 headstones were restored last
year and the monumental mason is currently working on the second 10. We’re hoping
to raise funding to repair the remaining damaged headstones in the next few
months, so that the work will be completed in time for the 150th.
Funding for this work has come from the Historic
Cemeteries Conservation Trust of New Zealand and from a small number of
the descendants of people who are buried in the cemetery.
Another part of the restoration work involving the Chinese
section of the cemetery is currently on hold, awaiting a survey with ground
penetrating radar.
Despite the progress that’s been made at the cemetery, we
were disturbed to learn from the monumental mason last week, that a marble
cross which was part of one of the headstones that was being repaired had been
stolen. This is the second theft from the cemetery in recent months. You may
recall that two of the recently planted Ginko Bilbao trees that were kindly
donated by George Mason were stolen earlier this year. These were recently
replaced thanks to a donation by one of our members, Annie Villiers and her son
Feng.
The Historic Trails project will link in with a similar
Maniototo-wide trails project that is being managed by Project Maniototo. We
have successfully applied for a 16 week work grant from DSW and Otago Community
Trust for a Project Green Worker to research and establish the local trail
which will cover the sites of significant buildings and events, both within
Naseby and in neighbouring areas, such as the various mined gullies surrounding
the town and out as far as Kyeburn diggings. DSW’s work brokers will soon begin
the search for an appropriate person.
Over the past few months we’ve been working on a plan to
develop a closer relationship with Naseby’s business community with a view to
helping stimulate growth and finding ways of eliminating the barriers to doing
business in Naseby. We have arranged a meeting of local business people next Wednesday
and I’m pleased to say that the response to date has been great and we expect
most of our businesses will be represented.
The other business-oriented project is the establishment of
an alternative cycle route from the rail trail into Naseby. We have been
working closely with the CODC, the Community Board and the Rail Trail Trust and
we hope our plan to establish a loop from the trail at Brinsdon Road which will
eventually take riders back to Ranfurly by Back Road will receive final
approval at the CODC’s meeting next
Tuesday.
The suggestion for an alternative route came out of the
Naseby Community Plan process last year. It’s designed to encourage riders to
visit Naseby by a safe alternative route and to stay an extra day exploring our
great town and hopefully leaving a few dollars behind as well!
After years of lobbying, cell phone coverage for Naseby is
now finally on the horizon. Vodafone, as part of the Government’s Rural Broadband
Initiative, is currently looking at a range of sites in the area which will
ensure Naseby and other parts of the Maniototo which are currently poorly
served, will have excellent coverage of signals from all of the mobile phone
providers – Telecom, 2 Degrees, Telstra
Clear and Vodafone.
Our committee is always looking for innovative ways of
improving services within our community and one of the more “outside of the
square” projects that we have been considering is the possibility of Naseby
having community-owned wind turbines. We’ve been talking to members of the
Blueskin Bay Committee that is looking to establish a small wind farm in the
Waitati area. We’re doing some preliminary research, however we are a long way
away from having anything tangible to discuss at this stage.
Finally, I’d like to thank our committee for their
dedication to Naseby Vision and in particular to all things Naseby. I’m
honoured to be able to work with such a great team of people. My special thanks
goes to Hilary who devotes many hours to Naseby Vision – an organisation could
not wish for a better secretary!
In closing I’d like to pay a special tribute to John Steele,
who has resigned this month from the committee. John is a great guy who has
done an enormous amount for the community over a number of decades. He has been
a great contributor to Naseby Vision and its projects since the inception of
the organisation. John is standing down to focus on some health issues and on
behalf of the Naseby Vision team I would like to convey our sincere thanks and
our very best wishes to John for a speedy recovery.