4 April 2019
Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: Asbestos in Rotorua Museum
Enquiry
Reporter sought information re asbestos in the museum, additional to what was mentioned during today's Operations & Monitoring Committee hui:
Just need to know how much there is in there, when it was found, how much its expected to cost to remove it, when that's planned to happen and how its going to impact the overall timeline?
Subsequent question following initial response:
Can I please just clarify if this puts the overall cost of the work up, or if it was already budgeted for somewhat?
Response
From Rotorua Lakes Council Arts & Culture Manager, Stewart Brown:
The asbestos found in the museum is not substantial.
In a building of this age we expected to find some asbestos which is why we tested for it. This is part of our thorough building investigative processes.
Initial scans in December 2018 showed some evidence of asbestos. Following this, in ground samples were taken and further testing was completed. These results were received around three weeks ago.
Asbestos is apparent in the roof space around the North and West Galleries, and above the Rotorua Stories Cinema. Asbestos is also apparent in the basement and is suspected to have come from old pipe lagging and is mostly contained.
All asbestos will be expertly removed once work on the museum begins. This is anticipated to cost between $25,000 and $40,000.
Timeframes will be unaffected as the removal will be done as part of the enabling work.
Response to subsequent question:
This has been accounted for in the budget already.
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Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: Dog attacks follow-up
Enquiry
I'm just following up on the dog attacks we reported on last week to see if they have been caught?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503438&objectid=12217541
People took the comments saying Animal Control knows who/where the dog/s belonged.
-Does animal control know where the dog/s live?
-Has animal control
-If so, how long has this been known and what has been done?
-What is the protocol behind bringing in a dog known to be killing or attacking other pets or attacking people?
-How many calls have come into animal control in the last seven days?
-How many of these were roaming dogs?
Response
From Animal Control team lead Dylan Wright:
"We can confirm that increased patrols are continuing in the Hillcrest area and the Animal Control Unit is following all possible leads as part of its investigation into the attacks in the Hillcrest area."
Information (not quotes):
When Council receives a report of an attack an Animal Control Officer will investigate which involves speaking to the complainant and/or witness and from there the offending dog may be seized. Under the Dog Control Act an officer has the power to seize a dog from a property if they believe an offence has been committed. The officer will leave seizure notice at the address. If the dog is seized, an identification process is carried out and from there appropriate action is taken.
In the past seven days (28 March - 4pm 4 April) Council has received 162* Animal Control related calls 40 of which were in regards to roaming dogs.
*Please note we can only give the number of calls that resulted in jobs lodged. There may have been more that were resolved by the Customer Advisor and not lodged as a job in our system.
