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Tuesday, March 19, 2013 cook Islands News
localneWs nuti no roto i te iPUKarea
Support needed for playground COMMUniTY support is needed to maintain the playground at the Punanga nui Markets in avatiu. A child aged around 5-years old sustained a serious bump on his head after the swing he was on at the playground snapped sending him crashing into a steel frame. The accident was seen by george george and his wife on an evening walk last week prompting him to ask who maintains the playground. Funded by the rotary Club of rarotonga and built over 18-years-ago the maintenance of the community playground is believed to be the responsibility of the newly formed Punanga nui Committee chaired by the associate minister for agriculture Kiriau Turepu. Market manager elmah McBirney says as far as she knows the playground is under their care, however, she points out that there are no funds to upgrade or maintain the playground which is well used by the community – especially on the popular saturday market day. McBirney says she wished that people would bring up issues with the market and including the playground to her directly rather than go through the media. However, she says she was aware that one of the swings in the playground was broken and she asked one of her maintenance staff to ix it. It was a cheap ix it job that broke, hurling the small child against the swing’s frame last week. “i didn’t realise our maintenance people had done such a cheap fix-it job on there, and
i’ll go get the professionals to ix it,” says McBirney. For george, the sight of the young boy crashing into the swing frame was ‘horrifying’. after making sure the young boy was okay, george, who is also the chairman of the local Mongoose golden oldies club, looked around the playground and became upset with the run down state of what is a very well used play area for kids. He says he’s already spoken to rotary president Bob Boyd and both men agree that their organisations are always prepared to volunteer their muscle to revamp the area as they did in 2010 with the help of a number of other generous volunteers. “We are prepared to come out again and help maintain the place, but the onus is on those people charged with looking after this place,” says george. McBirney was grateful to hear the news that there were community groups willing to help with maintaining the playground but as the Punanga nui Committee don’t have weekly meetings – she is unsure when they will take up the offer of help, however, she did add that she was headed straight out to get professionals to fix the swing in question, with a sturdy bolt rather than the thin wire that was used to mend the swing in the irst place. - Matariki Wilson
Geroge George points out the shocking repair job on one of the swings at the Punanga nui market playground that broke sending a child in the swing crashing into the frame.
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Storm drain an afterthought? “PerHaPs someone in charge of the reclamation work in avarua can explain why, moments after the job was 'done', a good portion was dug up again so that a quite massive storm drain could be installed? Can it be as simple as the designers just did not have the slightest idea what they were doing and no one noticed they had forgotten to deal with the storm drain? Bigger questions: what is this costing and who is paying?”
GO LOCAL a sMOKe signaLLer going by the name rugby Union Fan writes:
“We have more than 100 players who all year play sevens in the rarotonga sevens competition and they only select one player from home. Look at samoa and Fiji with their homegrown and home based players. C’mon CirU, don’t look down at your own locally based players.”
NEW ROAD a sMOKe signaLLer writes: “if the sloshing of my gin and
tonic as i drive along is any indication, the flash new main road pavement between the airport and the nikao Maori school is starting to wave, wrinkle, dip, splay, move and generally show signs that one might expect of a 20 year old surface, not a brand new one. Did we get any kind of guarantee from the contractors?”
LEAVE TITI’ARA TREV resPOnDing to yesterday’s p9 article ‘Catch and release for Trevor’ a smoke signaller writes: “Trevor the trevally travelled from avatiu Harbour to avana. We have known her journey since – she belongs to no one but our waters. We feed her like everyone else. Did they really need to catch her like that or was this just a show off for publicity? Leave her alone, she is fine where she is.”
LIGHT BULB MOMENT a sMOKe signaLLer writes: “Before importing thousands of en-
ergy saving light bulbs to replace all the incandescent bulbs in the Cook Islands, did anyone bother to ind out how many incandescent bulbs are still in use? There hasn't been any in our house for years.”
‘FORGOTTEN TRIBE’ OF MAKEA a sMOKe signaLLer writes: “i have been reading in the paper about
those claiming to be the only kopu ariki of ngati Makea, which is the rangi Makea, Upokotokoa, Mere, and sadaraka, and all these are descendants of Makea Tinirau. How sad can this be: what about the descendants of Takau Upoko o ngariki, Te Upoko o ngarima, rima ariki o Makea, Teauira Matea and rupe – are they from the horses? Don't forget they were all children of Makea Pini. That explains why this title cannot be sorted out and will not be sorted out until the rest of the tribe that is forgotten, is part of it. They are all kopu ariki in their own right, the same equal right as yours, no difference. May the forgotten tribe please unite together and take action.”
shade. The site has also gone a long way to ease the frustrations of motorists forced to go the long way around the works as there’s no other reaction to the young man beaming from under his tree but to return the smile and a thumbs up for his ingenious umbrella.
GOVT’S GARAGE SALE THeY saY that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure, and
buyers had the chance to test this idiom on saturday when the government auctioned off excess stuff. Financial secretary richard neves said saturday’s general government auction was an attempt to try and consolidate equipment – not vehicles at this stage – which is excess to needs. a smoke signaller who was shown a list of the items beforehand quipped: “The government has found a way to make extra money!” Or a way to get rid of some broken stuff taking up space in the ofice! A couple of funny entries on the auction list were a pedestal fan entered by MFeM with the added description “No propeller” – wow, there was probably some ierce bidding on that item! And from BTIB: “Fujiilm FinePix F60FD Digital Camera. Comments: charger, case, wire and box upstairs. Camera missing.”
USING HIS COCONUT nOW THis is what you call using your coconut! This young man
stationed on the main road in Taputapuatea directing trafic around the water upgrade works shows that he’s got his head screwed on right. To deal with the extreme heat he’s chopped down a large branch and fixed it to his detour sign to create his own cooling
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