If you’ve ever thought about running for Raglan Community Board, Councillor or Mayor, council is offering their Pre-election Report as a great place to start.
So far local Councillor Lisa Thomson has declared she’s running again while community board member Tony Oosten has announced he’s stepping down. We’ve asked other local politician’s what their plans are but no one has declared yet - although there seems to be a bit of jockeying behind the scenes going on.
Our current Mayor Jacqui Church has announced she is running as is Aksel Bech the former Deputy Mayor. There has also been a surprise announcement from 19 year old Fabio Rodrguez who says he is running both for Mayor and the Pokeno Tuakau Ward.
Voters will also be asked to vote on the future of Maori wards in the district. Any decision from that result won’t come into effect until the 2028 election so we will also be voting for Maori ward councillors once again this year.
There’s been a bit of Facebook noise over work done on the Pohutukawa tree opposite the BP recently.
Council has said that the tree was due for routine maintenance and that the contractors turned up on site only to discover that someone had already attempted to cut the large branch overhanging the footpath with sawdust still on the ground.
The decision was made remove that branch along with another one that becoming increasingly low over the
Hamilton City and Waikato District’s joint water company now has a name and its first ever Board of Directors.
The company name, IAWAI Flowing Waters – was announced by the chair of the Establishment Board Appointment Panel, Jaydene Kana earlier this week.
Kana also announced the company’s three-person Establishment Board, naming Kevin Lavery as Executive Chair with Tim Manukau (Tainui Waka) and Dave Chambers as directors.
Lavery has been appointed for two years from 1 July 2025 and will effectively manage the company until a chief executive is appointed later this year. He is an experienced chief executive, familiar with setting up new organisations. Huntly-based Manukau is a Waikato River kaitiaki, with a strong science background and Chambers has been Watercare chief executive since February 2023 and will end that role this month, before taking up his IAWAI Flowing Waters directorship.
They have exactly one year to get the company up and running.