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10 — Botany and Ormiston Times, Thursday, January 5, 2017
Looking back on 2016 September
Streets, noticed the aggressive behaviour of the magpies. But when William moved onto the grassed area one magpie swooped in resulting in lacerations close to his eye.
➤➤The country’s 28th Lone Star restaurant opened in Botany. Builders worked throughout winter building and renovating the premises at Botany Town Centre, located on level one next to Hoyts cinema with huge glass windows overlooking the centre’s fountain and main courtyard. The restaurant, one of Lone Star’s biggest at around 600 sqm, seats up to 185 diners, has around 60 staff and opens from noon until 10pm seven days a week.
➤➤Locally-owned business Online Carpet was desperate to clear up a mistaken identity when the popular consumer affairs television show Fair Go ran a story about a business named Carpet Online. The episode led to people thinking Online Carpet, located at The Hub in Botany, was the one allegedly at fault. The producer of Fair Go apologised to the Online Carpet team and supplied them with a letter to show people.
➤➤Local nurse Emily Rushton was named runner-up for the New Zealand Nurses Organisation’s Young Nurse of the Year award. Ms Rushton, who grew up in Beachlands and went to Howick College, was nominated for her voluntary work, including extensive presentations for OraTaiao: New Zealand’s Climate and Health Council, educating on the benefits of lowering red meat and animal products in diets for health and the environment. ➤➤The annual interschool robotics competition between Howick College and Pakuranga College resulted in the winning robot, designed and made by Aiyush Jani from Pakuranga College, who took home a Raspberry Pi mini-computer as the prize. ➤➤Local school leaders expressed outrage after Education Minister Hekia Parata introduced the Community of Online Learning (COOL). Michael Williams, deputy chair of the NZ Secondary Principals’ Council and principal of Pakuranga College said while using technology was important, his main objection was that it trivialised education as mere content acquisition, ignoring the important part of the curriculum. David Ellery, principal of Somerville Intermediate, said schools played a vital role in educating the child intellectually, physically, socially and emotionally to help them become well rounded citizens. ➤➤One of Howick Local Board Pakuranga subdivision candidate Rosa Chow’s billboards was defaced by a racist vandal in Pakuranga. Someone wrote “Kiwi?” across her election sign on Pakuranga Road in spray paint. It wasn’t the first or last billboard of hers to be vandalised
➤➤While Xiaoming An didn’t speak much English, his artworks articulated a strong creative sensibility. The Pakuranga resident, an award-winning Asian artist who was born in Zhejiang Province of China, showcased his work at the Auckland Museum. With a smorgasbord of events, Taiwan Day at the Aotea Square was graced with an array of multi-cultural performances both by local groups and indigenous Taiwanese who were flown in for the event. The event was organised by the Taiwanese Hwa Hsia Society, Taiwanese Women’s Association of New Zealand and Taiwanese in New Zealand Association, which had many members from Howick, Pakuranga, Botany and Ormiston. Times photo Farida Master
during the campaign. Others were stolen from Gills and Reeves Roads and Waller Avenue. ➤➤Rehabilitation work started on the crash-prone roundabout on the corner of Aviemore Dr and Cascades Rd in Botany to the delight of nearby residents. People living on the corner were desperate for action after a string of near-misses. Cars were regularly losing control negotiating the roundabout, with some vehicles crashing into and through fences, parked cars and even houses. ➤➤Fisher & Paykel Appliances – the iconic fridge maker – was just weeks away from letting go the last of its staff and shutting the gates on its East Tamaki factory for the final time. The previous April the company briefed staff on plans for the closure of the factory which manufactured a range of small refrigeration products. The factory at that stage was operating four days a week and employed 186 staff.
➤➤A trio of Macleans College students came up with an app designed to help students manage their classes and assignments. Developed as part of the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme by Year 13 students Kerman Kohli (18), Andreas Knapp (18) and Keerthana Ananth (17), the Ed.life app made it impossible for students to lose track of assignment deadlines. ➤➤Tania Mahoney said fresh faces and fresh ideas were needed on the Howick Local Board which meant a changing of the guard. Her Labour Party running-mate Allan Hawea, also standing for the board’s Pakuranga subdivision, said there was complacency on the board. ➤➤Wayne Huang was running for a seat on the Pakuranga subdivision of the Howick Local Board. His key focuses were on community safety and accessible government. ➤➤Paul Young, standing in the Auckland Council election as a councillor in the Howick Ward, was
Andrew Beatson, the 32-year-old owner of the Aussie Butcher franchise in Ti Rakau Drive, Botany was fed up with a tidal wave of theft plaguing the store where he had been for 10 years, and the apparent lack of police interest or adequate response. Times photo Wayne Martin
taking another tryst with politics. In the Botany 2011 by-election to replace Pansy Wong, Mr Young formed the New Citizen Party and scored third highest after Jami-Lee Ross and Labour’s Michael Wood. However, this time he was standing as an independent and was not putting up any signage. ➤➤As part of the Fencibles United Association Football Club’s 20th anniversary celebrations, a special exhibition match was planned. The Pakuranga Town AFC old boys would take on the Howick AFC old boys for the inaugural Danna Mandry Trophy. The trophy was named after the current club secretary who had been with Fencibles United since the amalgamation of the two local clubs established in the 1960s.
➤➤Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross and Howick Local Board member Adele White braved icy cold winds to attend the Dussehra festival event organised by the Maa Shakti Charitable Trust at the Barry Curtis Park. ➤➤Sai Rup Reddy, who worked at Pakuranga Pizza, was one of the students who got a deportation notice from Immigration NZ as part of an immigration scam .He admitted his biggest mistake was believing a bogus immigration agent. ➤➤A well-attended Fijian combined service, organised by East City Wesleyan Church, Botany, welcomed the Prime Minister of Fiji, Frank Bainimarama, to worship during the Prime Minister’s first state visit to New Zealand. ➤➤As Elim Christian College Junior campus awaits ministry nod for school expansion, irked neighbours in Golflands are objecting to piles of construction debris lying around in the school property. Principal Murray Burton gives a clear picture of what’s stopping them from continuing with the building activity to accommodate more students on the waiting list.
➤➤The Cockle Bay Residents and Ratepayers Association chairman Laurie Slee and secretary Graeme Lane were alarmed to find height limits and regulations for the ‘business mixed use’ zone surrounding the Howick Town Centre had changed in the Auckland Unitary Plan, adopted by Auckland Council, to allow buildings as high as 27m or eight storeys. The adopted document was radically changed from the submissions which preserved the appearance of the main views immediately adjacent to Picton Street by imposing height controls.
➤➤Over 40 years Dr John Malcomson tended to thousands of patients over four decades, delivered babies who became patients and was general practitioner to four generations in a handful of Howick families. However he left his Howick practice for the last time, estimating he had seen more than 10,000 different people over the years.
➤➤Julie Zhu, 23, was frustrated that young peoples’ voices were not represented well in local government. But rather than complaining about it, she decided to show that representation was possible by standing as a councillor for the Howick Ward and as an elected member of the Botany subdivision of the Howick Local Board in the Auckland Council elections.
➤➤Edgewater College English teacher, Desire Truter was awarded the NEXT Foundation Expert Teacher Award for her studies at the Unitec Mind Lab. She completed her post-graduate certificate in applied practice (digital and collaborative learning). The award recognised her commitment to up-skilling herself in order to best equip her students with skills needed for 21st century careers.
October
➤➤Kanti (Ken) and Manjula (Mandy) Patel, members of their family, friends, Foodstuffs North Island executives, along with past and present members of staff and a cluster of loyal customers, celebrated 30 successful years at the Patel’s Four Square supermarket in Pakuranga.
➤➤The spring nesting season habit of magpie swooping hit Howick Domain with four-year-old William Gray showing the lacerations to prove it. William and his mother Gemma, regulars at the playground on the corner of Moore and Howe