Dennis Amoore has been elected as Chair of the Raglan Community Board for the next three years. The board had it's first meeting of the new term yesterday afternoon where Dennis was nominated by Councillor Lisa Thomson and with no other nominations he automatically became the Chair. The Same process happened with Chris Rayner being nominated for Deputy Chair by Tony Oosten and the rest of the board happy to no offer any further nominations.
The board was also sworn in by the new Mayor Jacqui Church although Satnam Bains wasn't at the meeting and will have to be sworn at a later date. Those sworn in include Dennis Amoore, Chris Rayer, Tony Oosten, Kiri Binersley, Ross Wallis, Lisa Thomson and the new councillor for the Tai Runga Takiwaa Maaori ward Tilly Turner who is appointed to all the boards in the southern half of the Waikato District.
Things went a bit differently at the Regional Council with Pamela Storey the new Chair of the Waikato Regional council after her name was drawn from a hat. Yes, The council vote was split 7-all between her and Stu Kneebone and with no members prepared to change their vote the council CEO was forced to resort to a game of chance to get a winner. The same process happened with the Deputy Chair with Bruce Clarkson having his name drawn from the hat.
Former Chair Russ Rimmington who was chucked out by voters at the recent election was spotted in the audience apparently there to see who was replacing him.
Pamela Storey is one of the councillor's from our own Waikato consituency and Bruce Clarkson is from Hamilton. After losing at the hat Stu Kneebone immediately offered his full support to the Chair as the entire council was keen to make a clean break from the divisiveness of the previous 3 years.
The Raglan Chronicle has moved it's office down the road to the i-hub in the museum building. With the paper being published on a reduced cycle these days, staff working from home more and contact with public happening on line more and more owner Jacqui Kay made the decision to downsize the operation and let go of their permanent office. The decision was made to pool resources with i-hub as both are in the business of providing information for and about Raglan.
The i-hub site will act as a drop off point for the Chronicle and Rag magazine and also a place to meet with staff and journalists.
and that is the Raglan news for Wednesday 2nd November 2022