From the Mayor

The editor of the Star has invited me to write regular columns for him.  I am pleased to accept that offer.  

Let me start by acknowledging the success of Councillors Pip Maynard, Kaye McAulay and Aidan Ellims.  I extend my thanks, and sympathy, to Ed Martin and Jeena Matchet who were excellent candidates. Democracy can be tough.  I hope you will both continue to take a strong interest in our local democracy. Congratulations to Mel Maynard, Angela Brown, Storm Robertson, Karen Krogh who have become our elected Community Board members.  Thank you to the retiring Mayor Alex Beijen and Councillors Brian Jepson and Pam Colenso for your service to our community.

Martinborough, you have elected great councillors and a great board; people with a blend of skills and experience to bring to the challenges ahead.  They are all dedicated to making Martinborough the best it can be.

One of the first things I did as Mayor-elect, was to attend the Wharekaka Annual General Meeting on Friday the 21st.  The Chairperson, Joy Cooper, gave a detailed description of how Wharekaka had been in such a positive position towards the end of last year, then how events suddenly forced the board to close the Rest Home and Hospital.  

I will not repeat what happened, as the board has already given very clear explanations of why it made the decisions it did. But there is an interesting parallel with a meeting I had attended two days earlier in Featherston, where the community was faced with the prospect of their Plunket Clinic being sold off.   In both cases we have rapidly changing circumstances  that alters what can be done and what can be afforded.  Sometimes, change is hard to handle, sometimes it galvanises us into action and new ways of doing things. 

Joy and her board have “fronted up” in a very open way. They communicated clearly what the problems have been, and what the board thought needed to be done.  The meeting thanked John Bath, retiring board member, and welcomed new board member Sir Paul Collins, a person with long Martinborough roots. 

The Wairarapa is the most rapidly aging region in New Zealand.  There is a “Wairarapa Positive Ageing Strategy”.  But it is now four or five years old and I propose suggesting to my council colleagues that we refresh it.

Mayors have offices, and as the incoming Mayor I have inherited one.  I would like to liven it up by offering the wall space to artists who live and work in the South Wairarapa, to display their art. I hope I can find people who are willing to have their art on display for a short period. 

With luck, over the next three years, we will display a wide range of art from all over the South Wairarapa.  I have asked someone I know to be the first to display, after that I will be looking for ideas and suggestions from you all. If you have a nomination, I would be glad to receive it at themayor@swdc.govt.nz.

Please feel free to email me on any matters regarding the district at themayor@swdc.govt.nz or call me on 027 500 8120