Mr Power said the council was ''thrilled'' to have had two historic places - Totara Estate and Historic Oamaru - listed in Heritage New Zealand's new Otago Landmarks programme, announced on December 15.
An important project for council staff next year would be to evaluate the feasibility of a bid for world heritage listing for Oamaru's historic area as well as the possibility of Unesco Global Geopark listing.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation [Unesco] website states that since being established in 2001, 127 Unesco Global Geoparks in 35 countries had been listed. None on the list were in Australasia.
As of today, Mr Power has spent 100 days as the council's chief after leaving the Wairoa District Council and joining Waitaki.
He was responding to questions from the Otago Daily Times about his tenure to date.
''I have been amazed at the richness of the spectrum of opportunities available within the Waitaki,'' Mr Power said. ''Almost every day, another exciting opportunity or asset comes across my desk, or to my attention. Oamaru and the Waitaki in general have a very bright future. A host of initiatives are under consideration or are under way, including some that have been fostered over several years by groups within the community.
''I am keen to see the Oamaru Airport re-energised, and to work alongside business throughout the district to improve recruitment and retention possibilities, and expand our economic base. Our new international internship recruitment programme has been very successful.''
Mr Power said he had received ''two very pleasant surprises'' since taking over as chief executive.
The ''immense positivity of the community is fantastic''.
''Secondly, the enormous creativity and community-mindedness of so many volunteers and artists/artisans within the district provides a depth to this community which is quite unique.''
Since Mr Power took up the reins at the council an internship programme had been established and seven university student interns would begin working to ''help boost our capacity to respond to tourism and economic development opportunities'' from January.
The most important decision he had made however was finalising the ''Tier 2 management structure ... with a more logical reporting line for each member of staff''.
An interim arrangement had been in place since the departure of former council community services group manager Thunes Cloete.
There was now a new corporate structure at the council.
Council chief information officer Bill Chou was promoted to the second tier of management as information services group manager to join: assets group manager (and deputy chief executive) Neil Jorgensen; finance and corporate development group manager Paul Hope; people and culture group manager Lisa Baillie; and heritage, planning and regulatory group manager Lichelle Guyan.
