| 33 Ōtorohanga District Council REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Virginia Wright Making a difference in Ōtorohanga Ōtorohonga Mayor Max Baxter: “...the beauty of Ōtorohanga now, is that it is still all about community and being supportive of each other.” Ōtorohanga have just voted in their Mayor, Max Baxter, for his fourth consecutive term. It’s a vote of confidence for the man who clearly has the interests of his broader community at heart, and some good ideas about what he and the Ōtorohanga District Council can together do to the benefit of all. Like the neighbouring districts of Waikato and Waipa, and Hamilton City, Ōtorohanga has welcomed a steady stream of those heading south looking to buy more house for their dollar than they would be able to in the big city. It’s not surprising, according to Max, when you look at their location and the accessibility it affords to both the east and west coasts, with cities to the north, and mountains to the south. Just as important are the less tangible benefits they have to offer. “I’m a dairy farmer by profession and grew up in a rural community where everyone worked together and had each other’s backs, and that’s the beauty of Ōtorohanga now, is that it is still all about community and being supportive of each other, and we really saw that during Covid when everyone kept an eye on each other’s wellbeing and security,” says Mayor Baxter. The likely growth of population over the next several years is just one of the things the District Council intend to plan for as they pull together their short and long-term growth plans, and it involves more than simply ensuring that their consents department is keeping up with the increased workflow. “In recent months, and it’s still ongoing, we’ve been engaging in consultation around our Town Concept Plan. Really looking at where the low-hanging fruit is in terms of tangible impact that will benefit the community. “Really listening to what they want in our town. Do they want the main street done up? Do they want greater access to green space? Do they want further recognition of the Maori history around Ōtorohanga? We want to hear what they’ve got to say,” says the Mayor. That consultation is underway now, and next year they will embark on initial discussions with both their rural community and the communities of Kawhia and Aotea as they collectively look ahead and plan to meet the needs of the wider district as far ahead as 2050. In the meantime Mayor Baxter continues to lead the Mayors’ Taskforce for Jobs and Community Resilience Programme, which was set up 2.5 years ago and really came into its own through Covid. 29 Mayors around the country have joined forces to create opportunities for their Rangatahi ( a general term describing anyone roughly between the ages of 15 and 35), to find sustainable employment. “We identified during Covid that there needed to be a conversation with Central Government, the Ministry of Social Development, about assisting Covid displaced Rangatahi across the country. “We came up with a co-funding model which gave us the opportunity to introduce 29 employment hubs across rural New Zealand to boost their chances of employment whether through getting their driving license, supplying the safety gear they needed, offering pastoral care, or mentoring services to either the employee or the employer; wherever we could we provided what it takes to get a young person into a job, and keep them in a job,” says Mayor Baxter. “We identified during Covid that there needed to be a conversation with Central Government, the Ministry of Social Development, about assisting Covid displaced Rangatahi across the country.” Over 3000 jobs for Rangatahi around the country resulted, for young people that may not have otherwise been in jobs. In Ōtorohanga alone they’ve created over 200 jobs, most of them in trades, and 20% of those young people are now in apprenticeships. The collaborative model behind the success of this initiative, between central and local government, is what Mayor Baxter sees as the key to the future of local government. He’s looking for ways to take this replicable model and use it to open other opportunities, particularly in areas like Mental Health, but more generally, any area where there’s problem or a shortfall. At the heart of it all is his determination, shared with many other Mayors across New Zealand, to find ways to benefit his community and be prepared to stand up and fight for them.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=