Miles and Robyn met at the MB Club.
This week I met a couple who had come to Whitianga especially for the 50th Birthday of the Mercury Bay Club.
Miles and Robyn met ten years ago at Mercury Bay Club on New Years Eve. And in the spirit of the celebration they donned some ‘gold’ gear and travelled from Te Aroha where they live to be part of the Mercury Bay Club’s 50th birthday.
Interestingly I had met Robyn many years before. She spoke about that to me and the special Australia Day events we shared in Karangahake Gorge.
Special events do create memories. On this occasion Robyn related the wonderful days of the Mercury Bay Players, a very active little theatre group when The Club was the centre of entertainment in the town. The dance floor was the stage and the whole community turned up for November’s drama and comedy shows (more about this next week).
I have allocated some of my editorial space to Patrick Kerr’s opinion piece on local government reform. He makes sense as others do. You as readers have to decide what makes sense to you and go for it.
There was no space for Patrick to be included in the centre pages on local government matters. His article was the right size to be placed here. I am supposed to be impartial and give everyone the same space but the fact is we don’t have enough space. This paper is inviting support from the business and event community to advertise with us. This means we are able to print more pages. You can help. The only way we stay afloat is through advertising revenue.
My head is reeling from the breadth of material that is included in The Informer re local government reform. It’s important you know that knowledgeable people are not agreeing on the direction, size, leadership and what simplification means. It is worth noting that our Mayor is not only asking for comment on the three option TCDC put out but asking for alternative suggestions – See pg.12.
It must be difficult for everyone who has a day job. I am reading and talking about it every day and trying to understand what is best for our future.
A future without local initiatives, local decision making to determine that future, will not be good for The Coromandel Peninsula. For that to happen there will still need to be reform and quite a bit of it within our local structures. They are NOT simple, not efficient and seem removed from the people. Pity help us if we go through all of this but there are no changes on the ground level of governance.
I am optimistic and The Informer is optimistic. We are listening to you.
