It’s signs and roundabouts for Te Awamutu.
Jill Taylor wants the vegetation on the State Highway 3 and State Highway 21 roundabout maintained.
Jill Taylor has fought a four-year battle to have plantings on a roundabout north of Te Awamutu maintained.
Te Awamutu and Kihikihi Community Board members have put pressure on Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency to take responsibility for vegetation at the SH3 and SH21 roundabout.
“It has not been weeded for at least four years,” Taylor said. “There’s been car crashes because they can’t see around it.”
Waka Kotahi’s Crash Analysis System (CAS) shows one minor crash in 2019, two non-injury crashes in 2019, one non injury crash in 2020, and two non-injury crashes in 2021, on or near the roundabout.
Kihikihi’s welcome sign is damaged.
When The News visited last week broken glass and pieces of vehicle could be seen on the roundabout.
Waka Kotahi West Waikato maintenance contract manager Joanne Towler told Taylor, in an email last month, that “an application will be submitted for more funding, to bring the vegetation to an acceptable standard. Then it will be passed to a different team for on-going maintenance.
“Unfortunately, the vegetation will remain in the current state while the funding is sought. I’m sorry this is not the message you would like to hear, but the end is in sight.”
Taylor was not impressed with the impression given to visitors arriving in the region at Hamilton Airport.
“The first thing they see is this mess,” she said.
Community board chair Ange Holt agreed with Taylor.
“It’s pretty messy, that’s all I can say as a person driving past that,” Holt said. “It certainly could do with a little bit of love.”
But Holt felt Te Awamutu’s roundabouts were more deserving of attention.
“It does not stand out as much as our ones stand out,” Holt said.
Te Awamutu’s Sloane St roundabout, for example, was gravelled and attracted weeds that went unattended, she said.
Holt is also spearheading a campaign to tidy up the welcome sign at the entrance to Te Awamutu, telling the board the Ōhaupō Rd sign looked very dated and tardy.
Te Awamutu’s welcome sign needs updating.
A faded sign carrying the moto “For home and country” is all that remains of the town’s Women’s Institute, the Waikato having three institutes in Hamilton and one in Te Pahu. Another sign is completely lost, with no clue of what group it commemorates, leaving a blank white plaque behind.
When the sign was considered alongside the roundabouts, Holt said, Te Awamutu was looking scruffy. She’s had comments in person and read them on social media too.
“I have got to find the right people to talk to,” Holt said. “It will come up at our next meeting to see if the rest of the community board want to do anything with the sign.”
Taylor was encouraged to ask high school students to design a new welcome sign at the last community board meeting in June.
Meanwhile, the Haere Mai Ki Kihikihi road sign outside Kihikihi Bowling Club appears to have been the victim of a hit and run. Holt hoped the council would fix it up quickly. There are plans to replace it within two weeks.
