Speaking with locals always reveals interesting surprising facts. For example, having lived here for only five years, I didn’t know anything about the Tauranga-based Hammond Family (NZ’s answer to the Partridge Family) before this issue.
Discovering a strong Hammond Family link to Tauranga born Mayoral candidate Tenby Powell made for an interesting coincidence in our Feature articles. We want to thank Tony for inviting us to announce the opening of his new car yard at 1208 Cameron Road!
This was a great community story which we were really proud to represent.
Between this Spring issue and the next Summer issue, we will be delivering a Bay Waka Election Special issue to approximately 130,000 households that invites every candidate from all local government entities in the Bay of Plenty to present themselves.
There will be Western and Eastern BOP versions and these will be with you three days before the voting papers arrive, so keep your eyes open on the 18th September for this very special issue!
We invited all current local body elected officials to submit (discounted but paid) content for this issue and only T.C.C. Cr Terry Molloy took up that offer – on ya Terry! On page 25, Terry outlines in his opinion that major causes of recent Council problems stem from a breakdown in relationships, combined with unexpected growth. He advocates essential, close, collaborative working relationships between local authorities going forward.
We also have a collection of opinion pieces that touch in various ways on the upcoming elections. It is hoped that voters will take to heart some of the issues we face as a region and select those candidates that represent the most potential for a collaborative approach both within and between the local authorities, while critically scrutinising the past performance of current officials. We need proactive, skilled people with proven right energy to rise up and lead our region.
As always, we encourage you to support our advertisers however you can, as it is their revenue which has helped grow our circulation every issue since the first.
We simply recycle our income into wider circulation, until one-day soon we will be at our target of 85,000 (from Katikati to Te Puke – hopefully with a page count to match!). It is always interesting to find out what’s happening in other parts of our special region.
Finally, we would like to thank our amazing writers, contributors, designers, photographers, sales team, editorial team and especially the proofreaders.
If you have a passion for our community, have ideas for our Bay Waka or Bay Online, want to get involved in any capacity, or to fill some spare time, then reach out to us without delay. We look forward to hearing from you!
Until next time! Mā te wā…
