Posted by Jed Wieland on Jun 12, 2017

Our second speaker, local politician Gary Bowles came to update us on some local initiatives that he was very keen to work with Rotary on. This included rekindling some projects of the past which seemed to have lost profile and attention or could, in his view, be handled better. These included the Citizen’s award, the River Festival, the running of which he wants to push back to the community alongside the Club own Carnival event.

Gary is a long-term resident of Pakuranga with interest and responsibilities for parks and sports facilities, arts and culture and the event portfolio. He is keen to develop the relationship between Council and Rotary which is a great opportunity for our Club.

The floor was then opened to questions members had about Council initiatives. Somewhat predictably a good percentage of these related to traffic and AMETI to which he responded by describing some of the progress of the transport corridor and the current thinking about the Reeves Rd fly-over both of which appear to be projects planned for the medium to long term.