Last week our council commended and acknowledged Shane from our Parks and Reserves Team, because he has worked for Council for 15 years now.
Shane came to council as a young chap in the Task Force Green programme and ended up securing a permanent role. He is now our parks team’s Team Leader and does a fantastic job coordinating the team to manage which jobs take priority, and which team members go to which jobs.
We have another member of our parks team, Scotty, who has worked at council for 38 years; our Parks and Reserves Manager Clint has worked with us for 34 years, and ‘Pikey’, our water race man, has been with us for 46 years!
It’s important we celebrate both our long-serving council staff, and the teams they serve in.
Many of the staff are Carterton residents themselves and put their heart and soul into serving our community. Our parks team in particular is out there doing the hard yards. They work in all kinds of weather and do everything from gardening, lawn mowing, looking after the cemetery, cleaning the public toilets, removing graffiti, emptying bins, and repairing playground equipment. They are the team that keep our town looking fresh, with some much-appreciated help from the Keep Carterton Beautiful Group. Many other councils outsource these roles to contractors, and therefore don’t have the same care and commitment that we get from providing these services internally. It is also a much more cost-effective way of doing things, and we’re able to respond to service requests much quicker.
The same goes for our waters and roading teams, who sometimes fly under the radar in terms of the amount of work they do. Did you know that in the last year, these teams have repaired 481 potholes, have resealed 11.2km of roads, provided 740 million litres of clean, safe drinking water, and cleaned 88 culverts? This is in addition to the 162 jobs they performed in response to Cyclone Gabrielle.
As an elected representative, it’s my role to make the best decisions on behalf of you, the residents and ratepayers. It’s also my job to hold the council to account, which I have done on many occasions. But it’s also important to celebrate the things the council does well, and not forget the benefits our community gets from our small council team, which under this refreshed management team, is working efficiently and delivering the services our community needs, when they need them.
