Waimea Weekly Locally Owned and Operated
Wednesday 16 October 2019
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After 12 years, Richmond has a new Mayor Bruno Saia Reporter
bruno@waimeaweekly.co.nz
Elected Mayor Tim King with his sheep dog Bra, at his farm in Brightwater. Photo: Bruno Saia.
Tim King has been elected as the new Mayor of the Tasman District. He is the first new face at the mayoral office since Richard Kempthorne was elected for the position 12 years ago. Brent Maru came in a close second, with 5,707 votes, followed by Dean McNamara with 3,360 and Maxwell Clark, with 2,481. A total of 19,845 people voted, which represents 51.67% of all district ratepayers- slightly up on last year and ahead of the Nelson area. Voters also elected 13 councillors for the TDC and seven of those were re-elected. The preliminary results come from the second count of all votes. The third count will be the final results and will be released during the week. New mayor Tim King was very happy with the overall results. “Change is good. Continuity is also good. I think we’ve been fortunate over the time I’ve been on the council to get three, four, five changes at each election. That brings new people into the council, new ideas making a positive contribution, having
a different approach to issues, but retaining enough to keep the continuity going on things that are working,” he says. At his farm in Brightwater, one day after the results were announced, Tim was relieved that the hard work of the campaign is over. “It’s quite a process to go through, the whole election and the campaign and it’s not my favourite part of it. But I am happy that I put my name forward and that I got the job,” he says. TDC’s new mayor was born and bred in the region. He has three sons, all ‘married and good to go’ and he celebrated his election win at his farm in Brightwater. “This is a brilliant place to raise a family and grow up and live and work. It’s a fantastic part of the world,” Tim says, next to his sheep dog Bra (who was already named when Tim got him). Growth, development, infrastructure and environment are some of the main challenges the new mayor is going to face from now on. “Particularly water quality is going to be a huge issue quite quickly, or even immediately with the government freshwater policies,” he says.
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