The Invercargill City Council launches an event this weekend to help the city centre to shine!

Business owners, volunteers and residents will be involved in the first Rev Up of the inner-city on Saturday, 27 January and Sunday, 28 January – just in time to show how great the city centre is before visitors start to arrive for the Burt Munro Challenge.

With the water restrictions in mind, no pressure washers or water blasters will be used.  Volunteers will be asked to be mindful of their water use, if any. Some window-washing by hand-held bucket will be undertaken but the planned washing of some walls and footpaths will not. There’s plenty of other work do, such as weeding, rubbish removal, and painting.  The pressure washing and water-blasting work will still be undertaken – just at a later date.

Leading up to the Rev Up there were several open days at the former ASB Bank building on Esk Street, which has been transformed into Rev Up Headquarters.

“It’s time for us all to work together to give the community and visitors a beautiful place where they will want to spend their time and money,” City Centre Co-ordinator Kari Graber said. “This is something I hope all of Invercargill will get behind to support. It’s time for us to start showing more pride in our city centre.”

Letters have been sent to all businesses in the area, asking owners to:

• Identify what help they needed to help beautify their premises
• Commit to the Rev Up and maintain the standards achieved
• Consider if they could volunteer their own time to help out

Ms Graber said several businesses had already responded in support of the event including Louie’s Café and Tapas Bar owner Mana Davis and Shoe Clinic owner Ben Fokkens. They planned to make improvements to their verandahs and shop fronts.

Deputy Mayor Rebecca Amundsen said she would be working with Ms Graber to ensure Rev Up was successful.

“The Rev Up is a great way for the community to reconnect with the inner city and show their support for inner-city retailers,” I would like to encourage people to get involved. Even if you only have a couple of hours over the weekend, every little bit helps.

“I am really grateful to the businesses who have already indicated their support and involvement, this is a great endorsement for the Rev Up. And also those groups and churches who have already put themselves forward as volunteers – they are setting a great example,” Cr Amundsen said. “We hope to build on the 2018 event by doing more and bigger projects in the years to come.”

Event organisers are looking for people with skills such as retired builders, painters and others who would be able to help run and advise working groups on the day.