Hill closures
Five overnight closures of Remutaka Hill start tomorrow evening and finish on the morning of Friday, November 10. During this time, SH2 Remutaka Hill road will be closed from 9pm to 4am. There will be two escorted crossings over the hill for light vehicles only each night: 10.30pm from Featherston to Hutt, and 11.30pm from Hutt to Featherston. Bookings are essential to join the crossings. These are the last planned closures of SH2 Remutaka Hill for 2023.
Bushwhacked
It’s that time of year when Carterton District Council reminds residents to cut overhanging hedges back to their property boundary. If bushes obstruct public accessways like footpaths after a number of warning notices, residents may be issued with a cutback notice. The council may also cut the hedges and charge the property owner. The annual campaign makes playful use of the phrase “trimmed ya bush lately?”. However, as last year’s campaign “gave 12,000 people a good laugh and saw one person report us to the fun police for a slap on the wrist”, this time around the council is at pains to emphasise that it’s not “making any references or insinuations about your private parts and/or personal grooming”. To paraphrase Sigmund Freud, sometimes a bush is just garden variety vegetation.
Open book
Wairarapa Archive assistant Mark Pacey will be opening the books on researching, writing, and publishing books at his monthly public talk at Masterton Library at 11am on Monday, 6 November. Pacey has so far produced seven books, about subjects as diverse as Wairarapa chemists, Masterton’s breweries, Wairarapa shipwrecks, and the United States Marines who were stationed in Wairarapa during World War II, while the first volume of his latest book [about Masterton’s Golden Games in the 1960s] will be launched in three weeks. Monday’s presentation will cover everything involved in the self-publishing process, from sourcing photographs to design and legal requirements.
Fawkes foolery
Police responded to a call of people setting off fireworks at a park on Dixon St on Thursday night, and found the culprits were children. Setting off fireworks in public parks is prohibited, and private-use fireworks can only be used on private property.
