Mayor Tracey Collis thanks departing CEO Blair King at his final Tararua District Council meeting.
Blair King attended his last Tararua District Council meeting on Wednesday October 28, after 12 years as its CEO. At the end of the meeting mayor Tracey Collis made a farewell speech.
"Blair joined the Tararua District Council in November 2008 a challenging time to join council during a global financial crisis in a district with a small ratepayer base with the fourth largest roading network in the country and a rural economy experiencing hardship.
"We have benefitted from his engineering background in many aspects of his role as CE along with his passion and commitment to his volunteer roles with 17 years in the fire service and as a member of urban search and rescue.
"In this capacity Blair has assisted in the 2011 Christchurch quakes, followed by the tsunami in Japan. We were very proud of Blair as a district to be able assist others during these crises. He also assisted in the Edgecombe floods and was on standby for the Port Hills fires.
"Locally Blair has the highest record for fire attendance and council has always supported him in this valuable service to the community – thank you. He always made sure that the fire-fighting equipment and buildings were where they needed to be before they were transferred to FENZ and Weber are still grateful for the new fire depot. The stuff legends are made of – Blair's record of the siren going off during a meeting is uncanny and I know he will be uncomfortable with these accolades so I will take bets now that the siren goes up if anyone wants to lay one.
"Over the 12 years with us, Blair has grown and developed many staff and increased our capability and resilience as our council. This has ensured that council has been seen as an employer and organisation that people want to be a part of when other councils are struggling to fill positions where skill shortages exist.
"Blair has been a strong advocate of collaboration and alliances – the first being our IT Alliance, followed by the Tararua Roading Alliance and recently the successful Filtar Alliance that completed the Pahiatua Water Treatment Plant.
"He has served the district well and made many improvements in his tenure. These include the digitisation of consents, his support of the MFAT programme and providing technical assistance to Port Villa.
"Dannevirke, Woodville and Eketahuna all have received town upgrades and the largest due to the pipe networks in Pahiatua is under construction now. Money has also been budgeted for Norsewood and Pongaroa after seeing the value these upgrades add.
"Blair has supported connectivity from the outset with the fibre optic broadband rolled out in the district in 2009. He continues to support this with Connect Tararua.
"He was at the helm when the current bore was drilled in Pahiatua and again when the Prime Minister opened the state-of-the-art water treatment plant in Pahiatua.
"Blair has been at the forefront of four Manawatu Gorge closures, all creating much pain in the community before seeing a new road planned. This also made him an expert on the maintenance needed on the Saddle Road and battled for $4.5m in funding for repairs at the last closure before advocating for NZTA to take the road over this time round.
"The Dannevirke Impounded supply and Woodville Impounded water supply have both been successfully completed under his guidance. Pahiatua has also received additional water storage.
"A highlight for me was the 6.2 Earthquake in Eketahuna where 95 per cent of our pipe network was damaged and we could evidence this through using the CCTV camera system which meant we received replacement and saved our ratepayers.
Blair's use of technology has continued with the use of drones leading the region and more recently the use of internet of things devices.
"Blair lead the team through the Covid-19 pandemic as our Emergency Controller and proudly Tararua District Council were placed third in the Local Government Information Management Special Awards for the most supportive team in the sector response to Covid-19 behind Far North Regional Council and the winner Auckland Council.
"All of this was carried out while managing a one-in-50-year drought and critical water shortages in both Dannevirke and Woodville.
"Blair's excellent relationships with Horizons Regional Council and supply partners shone through during this challenging time.
"The Tararua Business Network was set up under Blair and is really benefitting us now as we recover from Covid-19.
"The icing on the cake for all the team was securing the funding for Route 52.
"We thank you sincerely for the dedication and commitment you have given the Tararua District."
In response Blair said it has been very interesting being in a leadership role. When asked early in his job would he prefer to be the captain, the navigator or the designer of "The Ship" he chose designer as it was a much more flexible role allowing him to recruit and design a talented staff to enable the ship to sail and steer effectively.
He said it was a privilege to lead such a talented team.