Supporting our community

Latest News & Media Releases

Published: 22 Jun 2020

Supporting our community

Initiatives developed in response to COVID-19

Environmental Services

  • Payment plan and extension of time options for Liquor and Health registrations
  • Focus on speeding up consent processing times
  • Introduction of remote building inspection service

CBay

  • CBay fitness team (via Facebook) posted a daily fitness challenge to help people remain active during lockdown

Library

  • Offered the ability to join online for digital membership – valid for 12 months
  • Promoted their existing online resources:
    • e-books
    • e-audio
    • movies
    • newspapers
    • magazines
    • Ancestry.com
    • LinkedIn Learning (online courses)
  • Library offering a click/call and collect service during period of closure due to upgrades
  • Launched a Library App – people can search the Library’s catalogue and manage their account from their mobile device
  • Ran some Online Story Times through lockdown
  • Provided lists of free activities people could do in their bubble and shared on Facebook website
  • Ran a Lockdown Poetry Competition
  • Increased limit on Kanopy titles that borrowers could access – increased from 10 titles to 15 titles per month
  • Increased purchase of e-book, e-audio and consortia purchases
  • Free holds, extended loans, no overdue fines during Covid-19
  • Tutorials online for digital platform usage
  • Increased usage of Branch Libraries as Timaru Library is closed
    • borrowers exploring the whole district library service (has increased expenditure in Temuka and Geraldine from Timaru people)
  • Change in Timaru Library opening hours when the library reopens
    • 9am – 6pm Monday – to Friday
    • Saturday and Sunday hours remain the same
  • More staff available during the day to provide help and increased outreach programmes (community room)
  • Supporting local contractors for project work
  • As of the new fees & charges there will no longer be overdue fines on Children’s books moving forward

Art Gallery

  • Brought their content into digital formats such as digital exhibitions, sharing stories on their website, Instagram and Facebook
  • Uploading art education guides, recreational colouring-in works from the collection
  • Staff posting their insights into their home collections, their personal art practice and highlighting their favourite works from the collection, sharing their creativity during lockdown and their processes
  • They also created a Faces of South Canterbury project which is documenting the lockdown – getting people to send in selfies of them and their bubbles during lockdown. Great way to get people involved via Facebook/Instagram etc

Museum

  • Education team worked to develop remote learning modules for schools to use Museum resources
  • Posted video guides on holiday lockdown activities for kids
  • The Museum team have continued to develop material for people to enjoy on the Museum’s Facebook page and have added historical information, education resources, ANZAC heritage themed pages and videos onto the website
  • Museum weekend staff and volunteers have now added over 15,000 biographical entries onto the births/deaths/marriages database, while working from home

Emergency Operations Centre / CustomerServices / Library / Welfare Team

  • Over 4,500 outbound welfare calls to the older members of our community

Governance

  • Meetings occurred online via Zoom and recorded for public access

Council Services

  • Emergency requests (e.g. broken tobies, sewer breaks etc.) continued to be safely addressed
  • Council facilities were made safe to prevent infection (e.g. roping off playgrounds, park closures etc.)

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Last updated: 24 Feb 2021