Waimea Weekly
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Wednesday 18 October 2017
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Deputy follows father’s footsteps
Page 22
International debut
Registered Electricians
Page 14 - 15
Frank Goeddert, above, has been busy helping drivers stranded in the ford on Golden Hills Rd. Top right: The Eves Valley Stream ford in flood. Bottom right: The car that hit the footbridge on the second Eves Valley Stream ford. Photos: Simon Bloomberg and Cath Slotemaker.
Flooded ford provides extra work for Frank Simon Bloomberg Reporter
simon@waimeaweekly.co.nz
Appleby nurseryman Frank Goeddert has been running his nursery Frank’s Trees on Golden Hills road for 14 years, but the way things have been going this year he should think about changing its name to Franks Trees and Towing Services. Frank’s property is right next to the ford across Eves Valley Stream and every year he gets out his tractor and rope and tows
two or three hapless drivers and their waterlogged cars out of the ford. But this year’s wet winter and spring has meant Frank has been extra busy towing and pushing cars out of the ford which has been almost permanently flooded. “We sit in the office and see a car race past when we know the ford’s too deep, so when it doesn’t come back up the road we know they are stuck,” Frank says. “Then the driver will come walking up our drive asking for a push or a tow so we get the tractor out.
“It’s been worse this year because it’s been so wet and the ford’s been deeper than usual but it still happens every year. Last year, we went down there and there was this guy who got his ute stuck and it was so deep he was sitting on the top of his cab calling for help on his cellphone.” Frank’s latest salvage job was a tradesman’s van that had conked out after crossing the ford last Thursday while earlier in the week someone had left their late model BMW parked in the middle of the road after the engine
had become waterlogged. He has also helped drivers escape cars that have started floating down the stream including “two little old ladies who came back the next day with a dozen beer”. “She gave me the beer and said she’d lost all her savings in Blue Chip and the car was the only thing she had left – she was so grateful.” At times, the Eve’s Valley Stream has been so flooded Frank takes things into his own hands and puts cones across the road to stop drivers attempting to drive
through the fords. “I know it’s probably illegal but you’ve got to do something. There are some real idiots out there who don’t have a clue.” Although his cellphone’s photo gallery is full of amusing images of hapless drivers stuck in the ford before being towed to safety, Frank says the fords can also be extremely dangerous, even when they are dry. Frank and staff from nearby Waimea Nurseries, including Cath Slotemaker, were
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