Interesting survey that was completed over the past four weeks, it showed that the peoples choice is to turn the Old NRC building at the town basin into a hotel or something like that.

The final results were; 33% out of the 63 votes want it turned into a hotel; 17% wanted it turned into something else; 16% wanted it turned into a Hundertwasser; surprising 22% wanted the building ripped down with half wanting it to be parking and the other half wanted it to be green space; 10% wanted it turned into an Art Museum; 2% wanted it preserved as a historic building.

At 7pm on Monday night at the Morrison Hall, next to the RSA, a group of residence were called together to talk about the State Highway improvements and the effects these improvements would have on them.

The meeting was called by the WDC and headed by Jeff Devine, and there were three councillors present, Cr. Merv Williams, Cr. Brian McLachlan and soon to be Cr. Aaron Edwards.  Approx 34 people from the community came to listen, and find out more, but an air of distrust seemed to in the room last night, as the more Jeff talked the more frustrated the people got.

On the 16th of October 2010, The 2010 Westpac Northland Business Excellence Awards were held at the Northland Event Centre (Toll Stadium).

The night was filled with many surprises, with many hopefuls waiting to get an award.  Even I won the best dressed Award for the men and Shirley Weimer won it for the women.

The following is a list of the awards and who won them:

Business Coaching New Zealand - Best Emerging Business Award.

Highly Commended - Pear Tree Restaurant and Bar & Elevate CA

Winner - Smart Energy Solutions

On the 14th of October 2010, on the third level of the Toll Stadium in Whangarei, the Young Enterprise Scheme Awards (YES) was held.

There was a great turnout of parents, teachers and young people, with Special thanks given to Top Energy for sponsoring the event.

To get to this point for all the students there has been allot of work and money making, this is really just the icing on the cake for many of them, and they all have achieved allot to be a finalist.

Is Whangarei ready for such a thing?  Does Whangarei know how to look after a complex like this?

Over the years, I have listened to many of the people in area of sporting codes, with their concerns how they have to travel such a long distance to do meets and how Northland has the best motor sport people up here, but we have very little areas for them to train.

It has been 4 weeks since I started the survey, and 96 votes were recorded.

The results show: 47% for the Town basin, 27% for the CBD of Whangarei, 14% for Toll Stadium, 9% for Marsden Cove Ruakaka, and 3% for Forum North.

The results are only indicative due to only 96 votes were recorded, but what they do show is that having a party central location in Whangarei for the Rugby World Cup, is a topic that has created very hot controversy.

An email that I have received asks about the slogan that I used... "Putting Whangarei First"

Just to clarifiy "Whangarei" of Putting Whangarei First is refering to the whole District, the people, the community, the iwi, the businesses, and the farmers, not just the city.

It is time for us the district to be proud of who we are.  We are a community, a people that work together when times are tough, and we support each other, just like at christmas time or at a rugby game when Northland is winning.

When this was first mentioned, I was very interested.  There were many things to go through, and as a WDC we were having loads of issues with the NRC.

On investigations, I can say that our government will want this to happen in the long run, but they have clearly stated that they are not interested until Auckland is completely sorted.  How long will Auckland take to be done?  Well that is still yet to be decided.

State Highway 1 and 14 intersection will be upgraded.  I have posted the plans that have been sent to affected parties.  Please take your time reading them and if you would like to make comments please do.

SH1-14 Application

After 4 weeks, 79 people voted on if they would spend $34 million on another bridge to cross the harbour of Whangarei. 76% voted against spending $34 million.

There has been various comments made on Facebook, so I thought I'd summaries some of the facts and get some comments back from you on them.

1/ The proposed additional Harbour crossing is planned to go across the harbour from Pohe Island to Port Road.