It is time to hang up my Councillor hat and embrace the activities that retirement allows one to do – gardening, travel and just spending more time with family. Not to mention reading and jigsaw puzzles!
Over the last 21 years, since first being elected to the Martinborough Community Board under the leadership of Peter Craig and then Mayor, John Read, my knowledge and understanding of how local government works and evolves has been mind blowing. In the first years it was a very relaxed atmosphere and revolved around noticing and fixing the small things around the district and providing a conduit between the residents/ratepayers, the Community Board and Council.
It is great to see that Community Boards are now more actively involved in the consultative part of Council and have the opportunity of submitting to both the Long Term and Annual Plans and any other issues that Council is dealing with.
After retiring from the BNZ, I stood for a seat on Council and was lucky enough to be elected – the last 6 years have seen Central Government put more and more onto Councils without the benefit of extra funding – this takes a huge amount of reading and effort to get your head around, plus sorting the necessary funding to go with this.
Some of the things that stand out are seeing the improvements in the Camping Ground under the ownership of Lisa & Frank, the Pain Farm homestead being restored inside and the combination of the old town hall and the new Waihinga Centre, which is at the centre of our community, to name a few.
The improvements to Considine & Centennial Park -tree planting, path with the exercise equipment and soon to have story book walk ….. the inclusion of the cricket pitch and the proposed pump track.
The installation of the Manganese extraction plant in New York St West was a major undertaking and involved the flushing out of the water pipes in the whole Martinborough network. Even today I still shudder at the colour of the water pumped from the pipes to remove the manganese build up. As chlorine was added to the water at this time it meant that most vineyards could no longer use town supply. Most households and businesses would agree that this overall improved the quality of water they were receiving.
One of the most talked about parts of Council are our roads. We have miles (should say kilometres) of sealed and unsealed roads, and it is impossible to please everyone. Weather events don’t help, and they are becoming more frequent, but remember the roading staff are rate payers like you and me, they do an amazing job with the funding available and the manpower to actually do the work.
To our past and present Mayors, John Read, Adrienne Staples, Viv Napier and Alex Beijen, and the many CEO’s – it has been great working with you all.
Thanks to my co- councillors for their support/friendship and the ability for us to all work together for the good of our communities – it has been great being part of this team.
To Officers and Staff, both present and past, without you there is no council – you have made me welcome (and not feel a nuisance) when I needed to discuss issues, papers or just have a chat and I very much appreciate your friendship and support over the 21 years.
To Mike and the team on the Star, what can I say but you are amazing, making room for ‘Councillor Comment’ each month, even though I sometimes pushed the boundaries for having this in on time. Thanks to you all.
To the Community, thank you for having the belief that I could represent you all – your support has been invaluable – thank you and God bless you all.
