Oakdale residents have given the go ahead for a ratepayers’ association to be established in the area.
The decision was taken at Oakdale Watch’s annual general meeting at the Dutch Reformed Church hall on Monday May 29. The association will fall under the banner of the watch until it can stand on its own.
The watch exco will run the association until key positions are filled.
“This will be a temporary situation until the ratepayers is up and running, and hopefully from the membership we will garner residents to take over,” said chairman Tommy Milakovic.
The association’s portfolios still had to be discussed but there would be roles for co-ordinating patrols, marketing, clean-ups and fund-raising among others.
“We are currently doing a lot of the functions of the ratepayers through Oakdale Watch, but I need the watch to concentrate on patrolling, not ratepayers stuff,” he said.
Usually ratepayers’ associations handle the general well-being of the neighbourhood, liaising with council on things like cleanliness, traffic flow, lighting, parks and potholes.
At the meeting, Mr Milakovic was re-elected as chairman and CJ Scholtz was re-elected as vice chairman. Elzaan Rossouw is the secretary and Anne Appelgryn is treasurer.
Mr Milakovic said they needed patrollers in the day, and he suggested some of them could use bicycles.
The watch also discussed starting a youth group in the area to help with projects such as clean-ups.