Waipa District Council begins engineer recruitment drive
26 June 2012
Waipa District Council has begun a major recruitment drive in an effort to bolster its water services team.
The council today officially adopted its 10-Year Plan 2012-22 which includes over $160 million of water, stormwater and wastewater projects.
Mayor Alan Livingston said the council's strong focus on three of its most important core services would see one of the busiest periods of infrastructure improvements in the council's history.
"As a council we have undertaken two years of active planning to get to this point and have exercised restraint to ensure the financial commitments to these projects have been planned in the most effective way. Now is the time to begin implementing them for the betterment of our community.
These projects are required to renew and upgrade our infrastructural assets, maintain levels of service, provide increased environmental and health standards and to support growth and development, he said.
Most are essential and failing to do them would compromise levels of service, community safety and wellbeing, or put us at odds with our statutory responsibilities.
Water related projects included in the 10-Year Plan include:
Water conservation and demand management
Infrastructure assets condition investigations
An upgrade of the Cambridge wastewater treatment plant
The Te Awamutu wastewater treatment plant and upgrade project
Construction of treated water reservoirs
Introduction of universal water metering and
Renewing water take consents and meeting New Zealand Drinking Water Standards.
Water services manager Lorraine Kendrick said there had been a review of staffing levels and there were eight engineering positions being advertised from tomorrow.
The ability to attract permanent staff would not only be a benefit in terms of consistency and continuity, there would be a cost benefit to ratepayers as there would be reduced reliance on consultants, she said.
We are entering an exciting time in which the level of improvements made to the three waters services in our district will be unprecedented.
We hope the pure nature of these projects will ensure we attract top quality engineering staff who will enhance our existing team and help provide a safe, clean, and secured water supply for future generations.
