The planned installation of smart meters in North Otago homes has prompted several organisations to urge people to refuse them.
The historic Lake Waitaki Village, built during construction of the Waitaki Dam, is for sale, almost 14 years after a New Zealand couple bought it and became its fourth owner in about 85 years.
Four North Otago rural towns could get broadband internet coverage to improve a ''woefully inadequate'' service if an application by the Waitaki District Council for government funding succeeds.
A physical start will be made on Waimate's new multimillion-dollar indoor community and sports complex on August 3 with a ground-breaking ceremony.
Smart meters will start to be introduced for the bulk of North Otago electricity consumers from September, but an Oamaru couple has questioned possible effects on health and the environment.
A ground-based possum-control operation using traps and cyanide poison in bait bags is being carried out on 11,000ha in the Herbert and Maheno areas over the next month or more.
The Oamaru landfill is being capped in preparation for closure in April.
A Twizel restaurant was badly damaged by fire yesterday, despite the efforts of about 35 firefighters.
A group opposing changes to a water plan for the Waitaki River, including lowering the minimum flow, has had a request to present further evidence to an Environment Canterbury hearings panel turned down.
''Leave our pavilion alone,'' was the message from Dunback resident Jennifer Barnett yesterday who pleaded with the Waitaki District Council not to lease out the former Dunback tennis pavilion to a private organisation.
About 250 people from all over the South Island will converge on Oamaru next month for the South Island secondary schools canoe polo championships.
A colour-coded warning system to advise people about earthquake-prone buildings is opposed by an Oamaru trust owner of heritage buildings, which fears it will deter people from entering, affecting businesses within.
The Waitaki District Council has started the process of appointing a new chief executive, an advertisement appearing on Saturday calling for applications which close on August 2.
A traffic safety study on State Highway 1 through north Oamaru is not going ahead because funding is not available, but that may be reviewed again in 2018.
Peg dolls were the appropriate holiday activity for (from left) Xavion Coates (5), Emma Carki (6), Melissa Carki (7), Ivy-Belle Mestrom (6) and Emily Petersen (8) who visited the North Otago Museum's ''Washing Day'' exhibition yesterday.
Australians Graham Kemp and Ken Bergin are birds of a feather - both keen bantam breeders and judges who have flown to New Zealand to judge at a show in Oamaru.
Money raised in Waimate and North Otago has paid for a new classroom block at a farm training school for destitute and street boys in Kenya, cementing a link which goes back about seven years.
An Oamaru man is seeking help to complete a series of carved tree trunks at Friendly Bay that have proved to be a big attraction, particularly for children.
Major damage to the Oamaru Harbour breakwater, particularly from recent heavy seas, has prompted the Waitaki District Council to carry out urgent work.
Testing of Lake Aviemore, which could see it rise and fall within maximum and minimum levels, has again been postponed by Meridian Energy Ltd as it copes with the demand for electricity in freezing weather.