Lynda van Kempen

The only community board in Central Otago which voted to add fluoride to a town water supply is being encouraged to postpone taking action for about another 14 years.

Don't tempt fate, Central Otago curlers say, but the signs are promising for a national bonspiel.

An acute shortage of suitable accommodation for seasonal workers during the Central Otago fruit and grape harvest will put the brakes on those industries growing in the next five years.

Cuts to Dunstan Hospital services have been averted in a one-year agreement on health funding, hammered out between the group that runs the facility and the Southern District Health Board.

The reason why a box of firearms ''stumbled over'' by a child was partly hidden on the Roxburgh Gorge cycle and walking trail remains a mystery to Alexandra police.

A comprehensive report into labour issues facing the Central Otago horticulture and viticulture industries in the next five years highlighted a bright future for those sectors but also threw up a few curve balls. Lynda van Kempen takes a closer look at the report findings.

Two Airport Rds plus two alternative names rejected equals continuing confusion.

Alexandra's ''official'' summer temperatures could rise when recordings are taken from a weather station in the town rather than at the airport.

Alexandra's landmark old bridge piers may get a new lease of life and be used again for their original purpose.

Part of the former Alexandra swimming pool site is to be turned into an ''edible landscape''.

The threat of services being cut at Dunstan Hospital galvanised about 1000 people to attend a public meeting in Alexandra last night, but the district health board said budget cuts were still under negotiation.

A tidal wave of opposition to proposed health cuts which might result in downgrading services and closing beds at Dunstan Hospital continued to sweep across Central Otago last night.

The ''honeymoon'' is nearly over for motorists parking in the central business districts of Cromwell and Alexandra.

A long-held wish to return to Central Otago has come true for high profile Dunedin chef Michael Coughlin. Rebecca Fox talks to him about returning to a restaurant which holds special memories.

A change in policy to allow electric bikes on the Otago Central Rail Trail has been welcomed by the trail operators' group.

Cromwell's Big Fruit sculpture is to get a revamped setting, with $868,605 set aside for improving that entrance to the town.

Dunstan Hospital may have to close up to half its inpatient beds and reduce staffing if proposed funding cuts go ahead, the company running the hospital says.