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  • Writer's pictureLara Thorne

Village Green Enhancement Update

Project Drivers HENK KUIPER, KATJA CAULTON, NICK GALAMA. JEANETTE LANGERAK and BRIAN RAPHAEL.

The Project Drivers and the PLACEMAKING PHANTOMS were busy in October 2014 transforming the roadside edge of the Paihia Village Green. An excellent result from two very successful community working bees. A huge THANK YOU to all (15-20 people on Saturday 4 and 10-15 people on Saturday 11 October) who helped. Both ‘bees’ were fun days with hard work and excellent humour.

The craziest thing was the weather. Volunteers shivered and then baked and then sheltered from rain, then baked again, all in a space of 10 minutes! Rocks were moved, weedmat was laid, new U shaped seats were installed and finally the shell was put down. Some of the littlest workers tuffing it out shovelling shells all afternoon!

A special mention to BRIAN RAPHAEL who built all of the seats himself in his garage (for free!) Also for the masterful handywork of BRUCE GORDON on his digger, handling with ease the many instructions in the tricky ‘perfect’ placement of all those rocks. And there were many instructions! Also thank you to Fell Engineering for the loan of their truck.

The second ‘bee’ was over in a few hours with many hands making light work of the planting – the pièce de rèsistance!

Thank you to all the ‘chefs’ for all of the food and to CELLINIS for providing delicious coffees. And again thank you to LOUISE RENDELL who consistently appears at working bee’s with scrumptious soup and home baked goodies for the hungry workers.

Thank you to Henk, Brian and all the team for their efforts that are appreciated by us all. It is a great feeling contributing to such a special place, working alongside old and new friends to achieve wonderful results. Well done Paihia!

Stage two of the project is likely to be undertaken this winter and will see improvement to the north side of the Green by making a large timber deck beside the rear of the shop. However, this is still under consultation.

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