Rodney District Council will again be running a program to prune and remove trees in the public places of Omaha. Applications close on 22 September. Scroll down to see the original news item with links to the application form.

Rodney District Council will again be running a program to prune and remove trees in the public places of Omaha.

They invite residents to submit requests for pruning and removals between;

1st August 2008 and 15th September 2008.

For any request to be successful RDC insist that contact be made with any affected neighbours particularly if shading, screening and privacy are factors. Written consent must be received from these neighbours and sent to City Care, RDC's Parks and Coastal Contractors who will carry out this work. This request form with neighbours' approval must be submitted before 15 September 2008.

Forms for submission details and neighbour's approval can be found on the following web sites:

Rodney District Council- www.rodney.govt.nz
Omaha Beach Community Inc- www.omahabeach.co.nz

Once forms have been signed and filled out they can sent to one of the following options:
Email: omahatrees@citycare.co.nz
Faxed: 09 4269735
Postal Address: City Care Ltd, 40c Forge Rd, Silverdale.

RDC advise that any request received after this date will not be considered this year.

Wanting broadband service? There is capacity again, and room to grow.

We are pleased to advise that Chorus (Telecom) have completed their upgrade work in our area, and all you should need to do to get broadband service is contact your ISP or Telecom's contact centre.

(Chorus advise that "The Matakana cabinet has been upgraded with a new DSLAM (Broadband equipment) and the bulk line transfers (existing) completed".)

We have been advised by the CEO of Chorus, the Telecom NZ business that now operates Telecom's local access network, that extra broadband capacity should be available in our area by mid-June.

We understand that the extra capacity requires a not insignificant upgrade as rapid expansion of broadband at Omaha Beach means that they can not satisfy customer demand on the existing infrastructure.

We are advised that the date cannot be brought forward because of the amount of work involved in augmenting capacity, but that in the unlikely event that there are any changes to plans we will be informed.

Any information received will be posted here.

The article below has been supplied by Rodney District Council.

"Construction of Rodney District's first standalone bridge dedicated for use by pedestrians and cyclists got underway on 28 February at Omaha.

Running adjacent to Broadlands Bridge, the concrete bridge will remove the safety concerns of those who regularly walk, run or bike along the causeway that connects Omaha to Point Wells.

Rodney District Council's Mayor, Penny Webster, says the new bridge will be a wonderful community asset while making the road safer for everyone.

"Broadlands Bridge provides the only vehicle access to Omaha and is also popular with cyclists, pedestrians and fishermen making it quite busy and dangerous at times," says Mrs Webster.

"The new adjacent cycleway will ease congestion on the existing bridge and ensure everyone can enjoy what they are doing in safety," she says.

"It also shows Council's continued commitment to providing safe, convenient and pleasant walking and cycling networks so that more people can walk or cycle to their destinations," says Mrs Webster.

Stage one of construction saw Broadlands Bridge closed for brief periods of time while two 20-metre long, eight tonne piles were positioned by cranes into the Omaha estuary. Once the piles were safely on the bottom, compressed air was blown down a tube running the length of the piles to create a vacuum and secure them eight metres below the seabed.

Another two piles will be driven in later this week when excavation works are complete and there is a suitable break in weather.

For safety reasons Broadlands Bridge will be briefly closed during these works and residents will be notified accordingly.

The new bridge is due for completion by the end of May and is part of Rodney District Council's Walking and Cycling for Sustainable Transport Strategy."

Davis Coastal Consultants Ltd advise that work will commence on remediation of the seawalls alongside the Golf Course on Monday 18 February 2008.

Rodney District Council has lodged a Resource Consent to upgrade the seawall on Mangatawhiri Spit, Omaha Beach. The works will include the construction of 395 metres of sand-crete seawalls, placing of 1120 cubic metres of sand on the foreshore, and the planting of indigenous coastal vegetation. The section of the seawall being targetted is at the southern end of a 1.8 kilometre seawall, which runs along the golf course and reserve on the Whangateau Harbour side of the spit. The section is constructed of rip-rap, and fibrolite, and some asbestos. A summary of the application can be viewed on the council website www.rodney.govt.nz or at council offices. [Acknowledgement to Local Matters]

With the addition of the demarcation markers and ripple strip, and a re-seal of the red roading chip, the road portion of the causeway walkway/cycleway project is now completed.
Note - the bridge clip-on project is still 'work in progress'.

Attended by: OBC President Greg Stenbeck, RDC Mayor John Law, RDC Councillors Penny Webster, Grahame Powell, and John Ross, and in excess of 100 OBC Members

Priority Projects were: Causeway Walkway/Cycleway demarcation barriers, Bridge widening/Clip-on, Estuary seawall renewal, Coastal Warming - Tonkin & Taylor report [lifting of unwarranted LIM tags on Members properties], adoption of "Omaha Beach" as official name [not just "Omaha"], Public Toilet Block at Southern End, Community Security Levy to prevent damage to or on Public Property.

From 18 September 2006 our kerbside recycling collection day changed from Thursday to Monday. Blue Bins and paper/cardboard are now collected from kerbside after 7:00am Monday. After several years of repeated representations by OBC to Council we have finally achieved our goal of aligning recycling collection with rubbish collection, and on a Monday!

From 1 July 2006 the speed limit from Takatu Road to Omaha Beach was reduced from 100 km per hour to 80 km per hour, another achievement in our "Promoting a Safer Omaha" programme.

On 22 June 2006 the Rodney District Council finally approved the necessary expenditure to complete the demarcation barriers for the causeway walkway and the bridge clip-ons. These two projects are now firmly embedded in the Long Term Plan with expenditure approved in the 2006/2007 year. Your Committee will be pressing Council to have these two projects completed by December 2006.

A new double-sided Community Sign facility has been erected at the entrance to Omaha Beach on the grassed area adjacent to the Broadlands Drive/Omaha Drive roundabout. This new facility has kindly been sponsored by Rhodes for Roads. The sign is available to assist all Omaha Beach Community projects and we welcome enquiries (email us@omahabeach.co.nz).

Held on 26th November and attended by the Mayor and Councillors.

The Omaha Beach Community Inc (OBC) is pleased to announce the launch of its new website.

The new site, www.omaha-beach.org.nz, has been completely redesigned from the ground up to be visually appealing and user-friendly. The upgrade became necessary following our name change and was further encouraged by our desire to publish as much information as possible for OBC members.

• The Communications section contains the latest news, events, projects and information on Omaha Beach sports clubs, etc.
• The Administration section contains information about our Life Members, Committee, finances, membership and meetings.
• The Directory section will be most useful for finding local businesses; everything from trades people to retailers, entertainment and many more.

Broadband now available at Omaha Beach.

The causeway walkway from the round-about to the Pohutukawa Café completed.

Held on Sunday 23 October the Beach Clean Up Day was successful although the turnout was disappointing.

Residents voted to change the name of the Society and adopt a new Constitution.

The Omaha Beach Residents Society representing southern Omaha property owners formally agreed to join us.

3500 plants were planted this year on the foreshore north of the boat ramp and parts of the dunes on the seaward side.

Now operating for residents' added security.

To prioritise 2005 Planning Forum Projects.

Just needs your registration/subscription for 2005.

Re-application by Omaha Surf Lifesaving Club.

Installed & operating.