Proposed changes to the Newell Rd-Cambridge Rd intersection are to be discussed at a public meeting in the Tamahere Community Centre.

The changes under consideration could restrict the way drivers enter and exit the intersection.

The NZ Transport Agency and the Waikato District Council propose making some changes as part of the work for the Waikato Expressway, which is to be finished by 2020.

We pay good money for every single item we later consign to the rubbish or recycling bin, often fast and with very little thought.

Sometimes we will have used a product for as little as a few minutes, for example, the ubiquitous and problematic plastic shopping bag, which can have a life as short as 12 minutes – from supermarket check-out to our home.

Each of us in the Waikato district generate 750kg of waste every year and it has been growing year on year, according to a recent report assessing the district’s waste.

The Waikato District Council is seeking feedback on its draft Waste Management and Minimisation Plan (WMMP).

The plan intends to focus on the avoidance, reduction and minimisation of waste, and to make use of opportunities created from resource recovery.

Targets include increasing the diversion of per capita kerbside material by 10 per cent and reducing per capita kerbside rubbish to landfill by 5 per cent.

Tamahere is in line for its second retirement village with the Sanderson Group on the point of buying a 10ha block bounded by Airport Rd and Tamahere Drive.

The Tauranga headquartered company proposes to build 130 freestanding houses along with assisted living apartments, rest home, hospital and dementia care facility for around 290 people starting early next year.

Brendon Russo, Sanderson’s assistant general manager, said the company, which this month briefed the Tamahere Community Committee on its plans, was currently applying for resource consents and doing other due diligence before finalising the land purchase.

A Cambridge company has been convicted and fined $19,125 for sediment discharges into a Tamahere stream.

The Waikato Regional Council prosecuted Cambridge Excavators Limited (Camex) under the Resource Management Act.

It involved two separate incidents that occurred in November 2016 when a large sediment retention pond used during development of the Tamahere Recreation Reserve was being decommissioned.

Changes to the Newell Rd-Cambridge Rd intersection are under consideration that could restrict the way drivers enter and exit it.

The NZ Transport Agency and the Waikato District Council propose making some changes as part of the work for the Waikato Expressway, which is to be finished by 2020.

A consultation meeting for locals is to be scheduled shortly but meantime discussion documents on the proposal are available on Tamahere Forum.

Ultra fast broadband is set to be delivered to Tamahere and Matangi with work scheduled to start next month.

Ultrafast Fibre, the company bringing fast broadband to the area under the government’s broadband scheme, said today work was scheduled to start in May.

Under the rollout scheme, the capital cost of installing the fibre road by road is underwritten by the government allowing individual customers to simply sign up with broadband service providers at no more cost than their urban counterparts.

Today, like April 5, 2008, was a stunningly beautiful, warm, Waikato day with blue sky overhead and crunchy, autumn leaves underfoot.

Then the neighbourhood blew up, transformed in nanoseconds into a frightening, confusing nightmare of noise, chaos, roaring flames and a huge, black mushroom cloud funnelling high into the sky.

Ten years on, Tamahere School principal Waveney Parker has recalled the school community’s many courageous roles that afternoon, and in the weeks ahead.

Concrete is set to be poured for the floors of the first two buildings of the Tamahere Village commercial hub this week.

Tony McLauchlan of contractor Foster Develop expects this first stage of the village, including the adjoining Piazza and Recreation Reserve, to be finished by this November.

The entire commercial hub comprises four blocks.

The 10th anniversary of the fatal Icepak Tamahere fire has prompted another publication to look back a decade to April 5, 2008.

Raewyn Koppens describes the day she thought she’d died as an experience coloured with suffering and superheroes, reports the Waikato Times.

The light of a warm Saturday afternoon turned to darkness, and through a smokey haze, figures began to appear.