Christchurch Earthquake Awards - Nominations

From: "Munro, Sharon" <Sharon.Munro@ccc.govt.nz>
Monday, 12 December 2011 11:14 AM 
Subject: Christchurch Earthquake Awards - Nominations Close 23 December 2011


Christchurch Earthquake Awards
(Please note: The Christchurch Civic Awards 2011 have been replaced by the Christchurch Earthquake Awards)

Who is your Earthquake Hero?

Christchurch City Council would like to honour our earthquake heroes. The Council wishes to recognise the many community acts of kindness, service or heroism during and following the earthquakes of 4 September 2010 and 22 February 2011.

Nominations are now open for the Christchurch Earthquake Awards. You can nominate your earthquake hero by completing a nomination form. For details of how to nominate and to download the nomination form please visit our website http://www.ccc.govt.nz/cityleisure/communityservices/ChchCivicAwards/index.aspx or pick up a nomination form at any Council Service Centre.

Nominations close on Friday 23 December 2011.

The Awards will be presented by Mayor Bob Parker at a special commemorative event in February 2012.

Upkeep of Roses in St James Park Memorial garden

From: Graeme Hancox
Sent: Wednesday, 16 November 2011 8:17 a.m.
To: 'info@ccc.govt.nz'
Subject: re St James Memorial Park,Papanui

Attention: Parks & Reserves

Good Morning Parks & Reserves,

Could you please re-instate the climbing roses that have not been replanted and grown against the arbor columns in the Memorial area of the park. Six columns in all are each currently in need of a planting. It's also noted that the ties securing all climbing roses to each and every column are not adequate and break very easily in high winds (a very poor quality twine appears to have been used ). At the same time as the climbing roses are re-instated could all the other climbing roses in the arbor please also be securely tied.

Many thanks & regards

Graeme & Judy Hancox

Club 22

You should all have received leaflets in your mailbox that we distributed last week regarding Club 22 and the noise nuisance and other issues arising from intoxicated clubbers parking in St James Ave. There have already been several very useful responses, but if you have not already done so, please put something down in writing and email it to Margaret (margaret.dave@xtra.co.nz) or put it in her mailbox at 111.

Of course you may need to do something on the night as well. Many of you have put up with a great deal of distress it seems, but it important not to take matters into your own hands when dealing with intoxicated youths. If there is excessive loud music ring City Council Noise Control 942-8999 for immediate action. For clear-cut law breaking, including drinking on the street in a liquor ban area and disorderly behaviour, ring the police: 111 if an emergency, otherwise ring the 363-7400 24-hour number for a less urgent response.

In any event, please document these events so that we can use them as ammunition to prevent renewal of Club 22's license. This is a rare opportunity to do something that will significantly improve the quality of life in our neighbourhood.

[See also News Advertiser article http://www.starcanterbury.co.nz/news/police-on-warpath-over-drunken-antics/1188482/ ]

Dumping on our doorstep?

Those of you that read The Press have probably seen articles on proposed dumping of earthquake waste in Papanui. Here are links to the articles:

• 15 Sept Shock at proposed quake waste dump
• 16 Sept Quake waste recycling gets rethink

Margaret has expressed her concern to Ngaire Button (Deputy Mayor) and has sent the following email to Peter Croucher (Papanui Community Board Advisor): 

To: "peter.croucher@ccc.govt.nz"
Sent: Thursday, 15 September 2011 5:54 PM
Subject: DEMOLITION DUMPING IN PAPANUI

Hello Peter

   I am making contact so that our concerns regarding the proposal by Ceres to use the site in Cranford Street Papanui are on record.

   The primary concern is that of traffic and the impact that the proposed 600 truck movements per day will have on the area. It is assumed that some of these movements will be by both truck and trailer unit of 40 t weight.

   No proposed routes of the trip for these vehicles from the CBD to the dump site has been mentioned but whether it is by either Papanui Road or Cranford Street it will impact severely on already congested road routes.

   If the 300 movements in to the site were to take place over a 10 hour working day that would mean that one truck would arrive on the site every 2 minutes with one truck leaving in a similar time frame.

   If these trucks were to make their way to the site via Papanui and Main North Roads it would bring these congested roads to near standstill. If the route was to be Cranford Street it would no doubt force other traffic on to Papanui Road having a similar effect.

   There would be little or no hope of public transport maintaining its current scheduled service.

   Both Cranford Street and Papanui Road/Main North Road are already severely congested with early-morning traffic and again at both 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. in the afternoon.

   The resultant increase in traffic flow on these routes will be to the detriment of not only the residents in the area but also those that try to conduct businesses along these roads.

   There are also concerns over the increase in pollutants left by these vehicles and their loads.  They will increase immeasurably the noise in the area, petrochemical contaminants, dust and contaminants blown by wind from their loads .

   It is suggested that it would be more suitable if a site is found for this operation that can be accessed easily by multilane road.

Yours sincerely

Margaret Howley

St James Avenue Residents' Association

EQC online and SPAM

I have been noticing a number of emails arriving in my mailbox purporting to be from the EQC, but when you hover your mouse over the blue underlined links, the link address as displayed in the status bar is bogus. e.g. www.platformdirect.com.au. At the top of the email it says "To make sure your New Zealand Earthquake Commission emails are delivered direct to your inbox, follow these simple steps." but if you click on the link it takes you to a direct marketing site.

This is spam or worse! (Some of these sites may even off-load viruses etc onto your computer and are best avoided.)

The only true EQC site is www.eqc.govt.nz as listed in the brochures delivered to your house's mailbox. This is quite a helpful site and lists amongst other things, how to make a claim, and dates when claims need to be in by for particular events e.g. 22 Feb quake closes on 23 May.

Good luck!

Helpful advice from the street

And those thoughts from Margaret have been echoed by the news media and by our neighbours. Here are some further useful tips from Michael Hilliard:

Having lived through similar circumstances, the policy for toilet use needs to be:
"If it's brown, flush it down. If it's yellow, let it mellow."

Also, wherever possible waste water, such as from cooking etc, should be allowed to cool then poured into your garden (not the storm water drain). 

Not pleasant but what will be REALLY unpleasant will be standing on the street behind your neighbours on a winter morning waiting to use the portaloo.   

We really don't want that do we ...

Back here at 121 I have stuck little FLUSH ONLY IF YOU HAVE TO! notices on our toilet cisterns, covering up the flush handle, to stop inadvertent flushes in the middle of the night. Not a popular move with my other half, but as they say, desperate measures for desperate times!

Barb Maclean asks:

I have also been told that the waste products from using the insinkerator goes directly into the sewer. Apparently we should be putting all waste food in the green bins. Maybe someone can confirm this?

Yes, Barb, this is true. Your bath, shower, sinks, dishwasher and washing machine all drain into a sump that connects to the sewer. So taking a shower instead of a bath is preferable, and it's even better if you have one of those water-conserving shower heads. And do put any compostable kitchen waste into your green bin.

Time for an update

Most of us have been talking to each other and helping each other out there in the street, which is really great. As you can tell by the infrequent posts, I have been a little distracted by the 22/2 earthquake and its aftermath, and possibly even a bit lazy! However, this blog may reach some in the street who may be otherwise feel they are in the dark about what is happening so I will try to keep putting up any news that comes my way. (Send anything you hear to me at mhurrell@xtra.co.nz)

Margaret has passed on the following:

Hello,

I hope that this finds you all well.

You probably noticed the trucks in the street today doing a sewer inspection for the CCC. Dave and I had a chat to the two contractors doing the work. They were very approachable and keen to let us know what they found.

The long and short of it is that the sewer is cracked and silted up at the Windermere Street end of St James Avenue. Windermere Street's sewer is apparently a mess.

They suggested that if we want to avoid the street having to use portaloos that we should use the sewers very cautiously keeping the flushing of loos to a minimum. This also applies to grey water use as well.

Hoping for a more official update but would assume that any work here will be after the hard hit Eastern Suburbs have been helped.

Cheers

Margaret