• Trail maintenance growing issue
The paperwork has recently been completed on the Central Otago Clutha Trails company, which was jointly owned by the Clutha Gold Trust and the Roxburgh Gorge Trust.
Two trustees from each trust - chairman Stephen Jeffery and Barrie Wills from the Roxburgh trust and chairman Rod Peirce and Murray Paterson from the Clutha Gold trust - were with the company and it would soon advertise for three more people to join the organisation, Mr Jeffery said.
''It's been a long haul to get to this point but now the trails are constructed, and it's time for some new blood and we need people with other skills, in marketing and promotion.''
Mr Jeffery said the company should ease the workload of the trusts and the aim was for the trails to work together to get savings ''from sharing the load'' and to bring in some income, through seeking sponsorship and staging events on the trails.
A voluntary maintenance contribution is sought from walkers and cyclists using the Roxburgh Gorge and Clutha Gold trails, of $25 per person a year or $50 per family a year.
They buy a tag to display which gives access to both trails.
Mr Jeffery said although some income was generated, ''we could certainly do better at promoting ourselves so people are more aware of the why the maintenance tag is so necessary''.
Maintenance was relatively low-cost at this stage and mostly revolved around weed-spraying, but the costs would obviously increase in the future.
Mr Peirce has made a submission to the Central Otago draft annual plan on behalf of the Clutha Gold trust, supporting the $100,000 set aside for maintenance on trails throughout the district.
He said the two new trails, which opened in October, had become a drawcard, ''consistently used by a large number of both visitors and locals''.
It was hoped the trails would help stem the declining population in the Teviot Valley, he said.
If the trails were not maintained to a high standard, then potential community benefits would decline, Mr Peirce said.
Trustees were doing the maintenance work voluntarily now but this might not be sustainable in the future.
''These trails have the potential to generate significant economic and community benefit. To not maintain them to the required standard would be economically short-sighted.''
