Roading and jobs growth

Gary Kircher.

What do you know about the candidates who are contesting the various mayoral seats around the wider Otago and Southland regions? Hamish MacLean puts the questions to candidates for mayor of the Waitaki district.

Born in Waimate, Mr Kircher, moved to Oamaru in 1969 as a 5-year-old.

He was his family’s youngest son, growing up with two older brothers and a younger sister. His mother’s side of the family was a Corriedale farming family who still lives in the area.

His father was a carpenter, but "went into various other things" and eventually took over the management of the Majestic Theatre, in Oamaru.

Mr Kircher attended Waitaki Boys’ High School.

And then started work at a Lower Thames St camera shop, before in 1986, at 22 years old, opening Fotographix, in Oamaru, a business he sold in 2000.

In 2001, he was elected as a councillor and for the next nine years Mr Kircher "tried to fit things around being a councillor".

His work on the council has included running a horticulture business, acting as a financial adviser, and before he was elected mayor, working as a work broker for Work and Income.

Mr Kircher has five children — two with his current wife Kerry (Ryan and Alex) and three with his first wife (Nicole, Jessica and Richard). Mr Kircher also has three grandchildren.

Why are you standing for mayor?

I think we’ve made good progress over the last three years and there’s still a lot I want to achieve for Waitaki.

‘Business as usual’ type stuff: we’ve got to keep doing more to keep on top of rural roading issues; we’ve really been pushing the economic development aspect and trying to help businesses grow and create job opportunities; and in the same vein, working with the education sector too on how they can help us upskill our people.

Outside [of the ‘business as usual’] is, really, those projects like the visitor attraction study, the potential for increasing the number of visitor attractions, which is that ‘grey area’ between that ‘business as usual’ and then ‘how you do that business as usual’ which promotes these opportunities.

There are some things we inherited, like the cultural facility redevelopment — I’m keen to get that through.

The cycle trail: getting Alps 2 Ocean finished, but then getting on Oamaru to Dunedin, ultimately, but certainly Oamaru to Palmerston.

I’m really keen to see whether that will be feasible and get on with that.

I believe that would be a fantastic ride in itself and it links a whole lot of communities along there.

Will you be a full-time mayor and why?

Yes.

To do it properly it’s more than a full-time job.

What position do you think the district is in?

It’s in a really good position.

Going back 10 years, people were saying Oamaru’s got so much potential, Waitaki has so much potential.

We’re seeing some of that potential being realised, but there’s still so many more things (we could be doing).

What are three issues facing the incoming council, and why?

Rural roading continues to be challenging.

And that’s largely because of intensification, change of vehicles — more vehicles, heavier vehicles — it’s all putting more pressure on our roading network.

And we’ve got to catch up and get it sorted.

Trying to see the whole district progressing: there are some bits that aren’t seeing some of the benefits and so we need to keep an eye on that under the district view.

Underlining a lot of what we’re doing is basically making the council more effective and more efficient.

It’s something that I stood for three years ago.

We’re making progress.

We are having one of the lowest rate increases in all of New Zealand this last time ... and we’ve got to keep driving that efficiency so our relative rates bills for everyone are as reasonable for everyone as they can be for the services that they get.

Basically, all the services that we get, making sure that they are as efficient as they can be, but also keeping the effectiveness, or improving the effectiveness where possible.

It’s making sure that we’re being as efficient as we can as an organisation and that we’re playing our part in the community.

What would be one thing you would like to have achieved by the end of your term, and why?

The roading.

It should be something that we’re doing well.

It’s critical to most people.

It’s our biggest ticket item and we need to get it right.

If in three years’ time we have a very good standard of network for everywhere in our district — or as reasonably as possible — that would be a good achievement.