Below is the latest report from the St Francis Bay Residents' Association.
25 April 2013
Hi Folks
Since the end of January this year a number of interesting things have happened in St Francis Bay.• Firstly, the Tourism office has been relocated to Viking Bakery and approval has been given by Council to put up new signage directing people to this new office.
• The second significant happening has been the formation of a Business Chamber, which has been set up to address business issues within the Greater St Francis Bay area. They have already achieved considerable success in discussions with council and other parties and a new committee is being put in place. The Residents' Association is very supportive of the endeavours of Tourism and the Business Chamber.
• We are, once again, trying to get the residents of Sea Vista to form their own Residents' Association so that we have greater representation when dealing with council.
• The street sign community project run by the SFB Residents Association is in the final throes of being put together. This project will manufacture street signs conforming to Council requirements. These curb-type signs will be manufactured locally creating employment. We are hoping that businesses will come forward and sponsor these signs.
• It appears that the Parks grass cutting team has stopped their ‘go slow’ and is now back at work, long may this continue.
• Two of the bad areas on St Francis Drive on the way to the Port have now been permanently repaired and the remaining section adjacent to Tarragona as well as the bend in Tarragona will be repaired shortly by Council. The replacement of the mains water pipe in Lyme Road North is progressing well and most of the piping has been laid.
• The St Francis Bay Golf Club is in the process of finishing a contoured drainage system taking storm water away from flooding the areas adjacent to St Francis Drive down to the sea. Council employed an outside contractor to put in a new storm water pipe system under the main road which will significantly help avoiding the damming of water. This project was required to be completed prior to the winter rains.
• Recently the new donated fire boat equipped by the Riparian Association was demonstrated to the media and public in the small boat harbour. The water pressure allowed for five hoses to be attached simultaneously with significant water pressure. As an aside, many of the houses destroyed in the fire are being rebuilt which is gratifying to see as it has created job employment and proves that SFB is still many peoples favourite holiday destination.
• The wind farm on the Oyster Bay road has started. The contractors Red Cap have agreed to have regular meetings with the community to update us on progress. This project is significant for St Francis Bay as it will be employing 50% of its labour from Sea Vista.
• We asked Council for an explanation as to why there is such a discrepancy in the meter reading period going from anything from 28 days to 41 days. Herewith an explanation from Council:-
“Electricity payments. The municipality would like to apologise for those instances where the period between meter readings was exceptionally long.
Unfortunately, there are a number of factors that influence the length of periods and over which the municipality does not have control, for example, the weather.
We can assure residents, however, that the municipality is looking at adapting the programme used to calculate electricity usage to ensure that residents are charged correctly regardless of the length of the period between readings.
Residents who believe they have been overcharged for electricity can send their particulars to the municipality - in writing please - so that we can follow up on it.
• We have had sight of the Kouga Municipality Draft Budget 2013/2014. There are many issues in this budget which we are not happy with and are in the process of addressing. This includes a proposed rates increase of 13% and staff salary increases of 11.8%.
• A number of concerned property owners have approached the Residents Association with a view to assisting us in increasing our membership especially those people living in the Gauteng and Kwazulu Natal areas. This endeavour is greatly appreciated by the Residents Association, as without more people paying membership fees it is impossible for us to continue with our projects as well as effectively represent property owners in St Francis Bay.
Jacky Green
Administration manager
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