Lynda van Kempen

Having a CT scanner based at Dunstan Hospital has almost halved the number of ambulance trips from there to Dunedin Hospital.

The Roxburgh Police Station has reverted back to a sole-charge station but a new rural community officer position has been created in Central Otago focusing on rural crimes such as poaching and the theft of stock and diesel.

Transpower New Zealand wants the construction of milking sheds and other intensive farm buildings to be avoided within a 12m buffer zone around national grid high voltage power pylons in Central Otago.

The first Central Otago cherries of the season are about to hit supermarket shelves but industry leaders say it is far too early to speculate on how the main crop will fare.

Raising Cromwell's profile through the Highlands Motorsport Park is like ''a gift from the heavens'', say the town's promotion group and business leaders.

A woman acting as support crew for her husband who was cycling the Otago Central Rail Trail crashed her campervan down a 2m bank in the Ida Valley yesterday coming to rest just above the water in a drainage ditch.

Nearly half a century after plans were first mooted for hydro-electricity development on the Nevis River, the prospect has been sunk.

Information from the public was the key to finding an elderly Alexandra man who had been missing overnight, just as the search for him was being intensified yesterday.

Pranks such as filling a teacher's car exhaust pipe with fir cones and sneaking away to smoke cigarettes bought with leftover lunch money were among the memories recalled by former Clyde Primary School pupils during the school's 150th jubilee celebrations over the weekend.

Tony Lepper had his rugby boots laced up and the number 1 jersey already on when he received the call to say he was ''back in the match'' as mayor for a second term.

Fruitgrowers Rd near Clyde remains closed as a slip on the hillside threatens to dump more sizeable rocks and gravel on the road.

This week's cold snap could be a ''game-changer'' for Central Otago grape growers and orchardists who were braced for frost-fighting overnight and today .

A mystery spanning a year is believed to have been resolved with the discovery of a badly decomposed body in a Cromwell caravan.

For the third time in just over a year, a group of people have been stuck in a family changing room at Alexandra's Molyneux Aquatic Centre.

Rates remissions of 30%-80% were given to the owners of three Central Otago heritage buildings this week - the first applications dealt with under a changed policy.

Merging with the neighbours, buying a $40,000 ''frock'' collection and whether Cromwell's growth was at the expense of Alexandra were all canvassed during a Central Otago mayoral forum in Alexandra last night.

As with any elite athlete, national cherry stone-spitting champion Mike Wardill has been following a rigorous training regime.