"The town's in pretty good heart but you can't rest on your laurels to keep it vibrant," he said.
Next term would be his third and he hoped it would be business and usual on the council.
Seeing through the new consent for the Marton wastewater treatment plant and getting the Bulls Civic Centre completed would be the big projects for the next council, he said.
"We definitely need stability within the district. I think we did extremely well in the last term basically because we had a very good council and I'll be hoping to have that retained," Mr McManaway said.
"The big thing I'll be pushing is that no personal agendas should be associated with becoming a member of the council. It's a collaborative role."
Mr McManaway said he would be open to keeping his deputy role along with the chair of the council's assets and infrastructure committee.
Down the road in the Turakina ward Soraya Peke-Mason will get a fourth term on council.
The Ratana woman wouldn't have minded a contest though.
"It's always good to go through a process but I guess I like to think I'm doing a good job for the Rangitikei," she said.
Ms Peke-Mason said sorting issues around flooding would be a major issue in her ward over the next three years.
"There's a lot of work going on within my ward around building resilience within the community."
She was also concerned changes to the Local Government Act would forced councils into setting up council controlled organisations which would manage major assets or services.
"We must challenge this, push back where we can and ask the right questions," she said.
