"It’s a really exciting project that’s going to make a huge and very positive difference to the downtown experience,"
- Queenstown Lakes District Council utilities general manager Mark Kunath
"It's common practice to have the site marked out whether it's in the CBD or out of town. This is just silly. I don't really understand it at all."
- Queenstown Lakes District Council Councillor Rick Pettit
Well, last week was certainly an interesting one. We saw an ugly brawl erupt at the soccer, someone almost lost their life when the power cable in the CBD was cut after the council forced Delta to remove their 'graffiti' from the footpath, and the team here at Queenstown.com upgraded a few things and continued to work on our redesign.
Contractors last week accidentally cut through an 11,000kv power cable that supplies power to 233 CBD customers and despite the fact that someone could have been killed, the stupidity surrounding the situation continues to rise. First off,
Fulton Hogan were successful in the tender for stage one of the upgrade of Camp Street, and this was back in February. According to the original QLDC press release, this work was to take place in April and May, and ideal time considering that it's rather quiet in the region at this time of year.
So, Power company Delta came along, as they do, and mark out where the underground cables lie by using bright orange spray paint. These are standard safety measures according to Delta but despite this fact, Mark Kunath orders the spray paint removal.
"It looked like graffiti right along the pavement. They couldn't have used a brighter paint or made the marks any bigger."
"It was the equivalent of terrible graffiti through the town."Source
It tainted the image of the popular international tourist town, he said. Um, excuse me, but the fact that half of Camp St's footpath has been ripped up with new guttering already in place, spell construction? 'Graffiti', hardly. Then to make matters worse, the Mayor pipes up to defend his staff's decisions.
"I totally support Mr Kunath 100 percent. We don't want people using dozens of cans of dazzle spray paint in our CBD."Source
I mean, seriously, can it get more stupid than this? Someone could have died. This takes petty to another level. At least Councillor Rick Pettit has some common sense:
"Contractors always ensure before they start any digging that all cables are well marked,"
"It's common practice to have the site marked out whether it's in the CBD or out of town."
Moving away potential death in the CBD and onto sports. A 31 year old New Zealand soccer representative required medical treatment after being attacked by two Queenstown Rovers soccer players, and a watching supporter. What started off as pushing and shirt pulling between a Queen's Park and Rovers player, followed with a kung-fu kick in the back and a head and throat lock from another Rovers player. To make matters worse, a supporter then ran onto the field and 'allegedly' punched and kicked the victim.
Reading about that this morning came as quite the shock. On-field thuggery like this has no place in sport, let alone from a local team. I feel for the Rover's coach and hope that he follows through on his statement to have the two offending players kicked off the team. The three thugs were arrested by the Queenstown Police.
Anyways, last weekend was an important one for us here at Queenstown.com as we toiled away into the weekend working on our new redesign. In the process, a few things have been upgraded, like our
Forum,
Blogs, and our
Classifieds Section. I'll keep you updated on the redesign over the next week, which is proving to be exciting times for our team. Until then, have a great week, and cross your fingers for some snow for later this week!
Nathan - Editor
Joke of the Week
Bad News
Deep within a forest, a little turtle began to climb a tree. After hours of effort, he reached the top, jumped into the air waving his front legs and crashed to the ground. After recovering, he slowly climbed the tree again, jumped, and fell to the ground. The turtle tried again and again, while a couple of birds sitting on a branch watched his sad efforts. Finally, the female bird turned to her mate. "Dear," she chirped, "I think it's time to tell him he's adopted."
