Sam Salthouse

When you get over 300 qualified, friendly and dedicated people together whose main focus is a community stretching over 225,000 hectares, from the Pacific Ocean to the Southern Alps, from the Waimakariri River to Hurunui, you can be sure that some good things are going to happen. That’s how it is with the Waimakariri District Council. A lot of the work we do is unseen – sometimes literally. Sewerage, water reticulation, community support … it’s not normally the sort of stuff that commands news headlines and lead TV stories. But it does need to be done and, if it goes wrong, it also needs to be fixed. Who fixes the pothole in your street? Who mows the grass in your local park? Who arranges for your rubbish to be collected? Who keeps public swimming pools open and clean? Who puts books in the libraries? Who plans for future community needs? … the Council. We also assume some responsibility for maintaining a considerate, respectable and peaceable community – the regulatory side of Council activities. What we like best is when people talk to us about their needs, wants and aspirations for themselves and their community, about their issues and problems – that gives us the opportunity to act on them and help to satisfy the needs or resolve the issues.