Chairman’s Report 2008-09

KENTON/BUSHMANS CHAMBER of BUSINESS & TOURISM

President’s Report

for the period 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009

It gives me great pleasure to present my president’s report for the past year and this will follow the form of a brief overview of the projects tackled and the portfolio functions. Firstly projects :-

Kariega Main Beach
I regret to advise that this is still no nearer getting off the ground.This was and remains our main project to be able to offer decent ablution facilities to tourists and locals alike at our main beach.This remains tied in with the Pilot Phase of the Kariega Blue Flag Beach project and hopefully, we will see some action during the current financial year, as the Municipality confirms that an amount of R350,000 is allocated within the budget. The Chamber’s budgetted allocation of R40,000 was unfortunately diverted to repairing the damage to the beachfront and launching site by last September’s tidal surge and we are uncertain as to whether or not this will be refunded by the Municipality.

Service Excellence
We had our second season of running this competition and the very worthy winners were Owen and Linda Putzier of Kenton Glass, who incidently experienced incremental business as a direct result of the press exposure. We had nineteen businesses participating versus thirteen the previous year and our thanks go to David McNeil for providing the eye catching trophy.

Jot Reading Club
This involved a small group overseeing the teaching of English as a second language outside of school hours, with the objective of bringing more of the disadvantaged youth into the mainstream of the economy. This is not directly related to business as such, but fell under the Chamber’s Social Responsibility portfolio.

Signage
This is a proposed pilot project to test community reaction to a sampling of some ten new street signs, which will hopefully be erected before the Christmas season. The signs will be made up of Chromadek sheeting on hot dip galvanised tubular poles. They will have a dolphin silhouetted on top to compliment our nautical theme initiated by our Kenton entrance walls.

Portfolios

Tourism
As you know, the Chamber’s primary function is to have an Information Office operating Mondays to Saturdays to handle queries and thereby promote the western half of Ndlambe Municipality. We have just emerged from a very difficult period, during which this objective was severely compromised, firstly by the sad passing of Erica’s husband, Patrick, and secondly by the time demands put on Erica by Ms T. Mali, the Director of Corporate Services to tackle studies and attend meetings. This led to the permanent appointment of Liz Jardine, so we are back to having two ladies in the Office. We receive a monthly grant from the Municipality, so we are obligated to work together, but we still have to subsidise the balance of the Office costs from membership fees.
Until recently, we have had to draw on certain outside services, but having put Liz through a specific I.T. course, our objective is to handle members requests such as web site changes internally and quickly. Liz has also recently  introduced the Kenton/Bushmans Notice Board with the aim of transmitting matters of importance to our members and also of publicising functions and events to the general public.

Website
The website continues to be the Chamber’s No.1 marketing tool with ever increasing hits requesting information on accommodation, property, restaurants and business. The opening page was re-designed and the site itself is generally recognised as being user friendly, which is vital in this day and age of instant research and communication.
To compliment the marketing side, we continue to produce the ever popular Annual Telephone Guide, whilst the fold out Kenton/Bushmans brochure is a high quality handout for visitors to access whatever information they may require, whilst in the area.

Accommodation Establishments
The B & B Association continues to meet with good communication and co-operation amongst members. Any new member has to undergo a rating by external adjudicators and every unit has to be re-rated every two years to ensure that standards are either maintained or improved. A brand new booking system, code named Iris, has just been instituted  and it is hoped to have all B & B’s making use of this extra service.

Business
Under “Business”, the biggest problem affecting Bushmans particularly and Kenton over the last two years has been the protracted upgrading of the two bridges over the Bushmans River.We understand that there will at last be free traffic flow by the end of September and final sign off by the end of November, which will come as a huge relief to all. Other bones of contention are the refuse facility at the entrance to Kenton and the glass re-cycling site opposite Second to None. We are pressing to have both either re-located or at least to be screened off, as both facilities are very poor advertisements in such prominent positions. We were devastated by the sudden closing of the ABSA agency and can only hope that a replacement branch will be opened within two to three years, as per their stated objective.

Water
As you know, the situation regarding the supply of water to Kenton and its surrounds has reached disaster proportions, due entirely to the lack of our normal soaking rains to replenish our underground reserves. Our various well sites have dried up to the point that sea water is now being drawn in. R.O. water is filling the gap in the meantime, but relief will only come with good rains. On a positive note, the impressive new 4.7kl resevoir has been commissiond and, provided all four resevoirs could be filled, we would have enough to tide us over the critical New Year period, but this remains highly unlikely.

Safety  & Security
We are sorry to have lost the services of our Station Capt. Hansie Slabbert, deployed to Port Alfred, but in his place we welcome Capt. Cannon, who grew up in Alexandria, so can be considered to be “one of us”. We also have a change in our local security firms, with Hi Tek of Grahamstown taking over Web Alarms and first impressions are positive.
These changes have come at a time of increased break-ins and of copper theft, so we hope to see a steady turnaround. One positive action by SAPS was the hiring of a local farmer to cart away a load of stray cattle to the Bathurst pound. These have been both a nuisance and a serious menace on our roads, so we hope that we have seen the last of this problem. Another success by SAPS was the setting up of a controlled access to Kariega main beach carpark over the peak Christmas/New Year period.

Wards 3 & 4
The ward system continues to be the source of great frustration with what appears to be a total disregard of resolutions put forward to Ndlambe Council, but we must continue in the hope that the “grass roots” concept will eventually gain its due recognition. I won’t go into the litany of lack of service by the Municipality on all fronts, as this has been well documented in the press. What must be mentioned, however, is the fact that the proposed Kenton Marina boutique hotel development has been given the go-ahead in spite of objections, the main ones being that it is public open space and it was never put out to tender. Another concern was the application to lease ground adjoining Kariega Heights on the R72 to erect a filling station, when the adjoining property was already ear marked for such a facility. We put in our objections to this as well.

Events
I have purposely left this until last, as the staging of the Kenton Xtreme was the high point of the past year. The objectives are not only the promotion of Kenton, but also to encourage participants with their families to spend time and money in Kenton.Thanks to expanding the number of disciplines and better organisation, we drew over 200 participants compared to 75 in our inaugural event in June last year. Feedback indicates that next year’s Xtreme from 14 -16 May will attract even more competitors and recognition for the overall success of this year’s event must go to Michael Wilmot, who did a terrific job of organising and co-ordinating the event.

Finance
Mike Bailey, our honorary treasurer will be presenting his very last report presently and we are grateful to him and our Accounting Officers, Messrs. Roberts & Bartman for overseeing our books. We are currently in a healthy position, because our members perceive the benefits to be had from the services and marketing promotions chanelled through our Office.

Conclusion
In concluding my report, it would be remiss of me not to mention the collapse of the world economy from which no-one can escape and which we are all feeling the full impact.We have seen the sad demise of a few businesses and we can only hope that no more are forced to close. Meanwhile we need to trim overheads wherever possible, improve our efficiency and await the inevitable upturn. We’ve been through bad times before and survived and they are always followed by the good times, so on behalf of the Chamber of Business and Tourism, I wish you all a successful and profitable Christmas season.
Thank you.

Walter Kitcat
President
17 August 2009