On September 28 last year, the former Invercargill mayor farewelled the position he held for more than 20 years.
He made an attempt to continue at the council at the last local body elections, when he ran for both the mayoral and council seats — but his bid was unsuccessful.
Since then, the Southland icon had been out of the limelight, with exception during the Christmas’ period when he hosted his traditional Christmas lunch for the community.
At the time, he said he would be working on a new book.
The Southland Express understands the former mayor was still in a rest-home after The Southland Tribune reported in March that Sir Tim was admitted to Calvary Hospital.
At the time, his partner Asha Dutt said it was only for "short respite care".
The Southland Express tried to contact the former mayor and Ms Dutt for an interview, however they did not reply.
Invercargill’s former mayor ended his mayoral duties of 24 consecutive years — and 26 in total — last year, and since then there had been discussions in the community about a potential tribute to contribution.
In June, Ms Dutt said the couple had received a call from Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark in February proposing to name the Gala St Reserve after him and host an afternoon tea.
They did not think it was appropriate because the reserve had a war memorial on it, she said.
Later, deputy mayor Tom Campbell offered to put a plaque on the Gala St fountain, or rename Splash Palace after Sir Tim, but both were declined because Sir Tim had no association with them.
"I, verbally, asked both Nobby and Tom to consider the option of a statue. Both firmly rejected the suggestion," Ms Dutt said at the time.
"Nobby stated statues were solely for dead people and rejected the idea, stating that he considered costing for a statue would be $90,000 and this was unsuitable to him."
Speaking this week, Mr Clark said he had not heard from Sir Tim or Ms Dutt since before the by-election where Ms Dutt ran and placed fourth with 1505 votes.
Mr Clark said there was no update on the matter.
"The feedback I got is that Asha doesn’t want to deal with me and that’s OK.
"I arranged for Tom Campbell to intervene as well and make contact and he ran out of steam with her as well."
Mr Clark kept his stance that he did not have any intention to have council pay for the statue.
"I’m not prepared to fund somewhere between $100,000 to $200,000 for a statue. If others are prepared to do that, that’s fine — we might contribute towards that, but certainly we’re not going to fund all of it."
He said statues tended to be of people after they had died.
"The ball is back in her court now. We’ve made offers to things that we’d like to do, but she said no to everything."
Ms Dutt did not reply to calls and messages from the Southland Express by deadline.
