Buller Mayor Garry Howard's mission to resurrect the economy

Saturday, 22 October 2016

Buller Mayor Garry Howard is on a mission to resurrect the district's economy after massive job cuts.

Westport has been hit hard by job losses. JOANNE CARROLL meets the man with some ambitious plans to reinvent the struggling West Coast town's economy.

More than 1000 people lost their jobs during Buller Mayor Garry Howard's first term in office. He's now in his second term and on a mission to turn things around for the district's revival.

Howard, elected unopposed at the recent local body elections, is a self-starter who once sold a property every day for a year. He rolls his sleeves up when needed and has come up with new ideas to take the district out of the slump.

Buller Mayor Garry Howard hopes the old Holcim cement silos will be turned into a silo hotel.

Howard is a third generation Westport man, born in 1958, as one of six siblings.

His parents, both professional photographers, set up a motorcamp, Howard Park, and a gift and photographic shop.

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When he left Buller High School he trained as a telecommunications technician in Christchurch where he met his wife, Joanne, also a technician.

'I was about 20 or 21 and took the opportunity to come back to Westport with Joanne and purchase my parent's retail gift and photographic shop. We put in a one-hour photo lab which was the first one for a population under 20,000.'

After expanding and diversifying, a career change led Howard to move into real estate, working for and later becoming a partner in Buller Real Estate.

Buller Mayor Garry Howard has ambitious plans to reinvent the district's economy.

'I had both bad cycles and very, very good cycles and at 46 I burned myself out. I had a 12 month period that was just astronomical. In 2003, I sold 258 properties which was one per working day.'

His retirement didn't last long and he worked on 'small projects', including building a 27-section subdivision with two partners.

'It was very hands on driving diggers and trucks and I just enjoyed it.'

Meanwhile, he was active in community organisations like Buller Promotions and the retailers association and looked up to his father, Graham, who has been a Buller district councillor for more than 20 years.

'Council and community discussions were always on the table. I'd always taken a strong interest in the community. In 2013, I went off and did a volunteer programme building chicken houses for an orphanage in Zimbabwe. It was only a few weeks but it gave me time to do something out of my comfort zone and have a think about local government and what commitment I could make.'

He came home with the plan to become mayor. Former mayor Pat McManus was standing down for health reasons and Howard successfully campaigned on a 'fairly strong platform' of promoting local business.

'At the time, the council was giving a contract to an Auckland company, Smart Environmental, for rubbish collect. The community wasn't happy that it was an outside company. The reality is the decision was made and Smart Environmental has provided an excellent service. It's a wee bit ironic. It was a good decision by the council at the time but it got me elected.'

The 2013 election brought eight new councillors to the table. Howard's first term coincided with massive job cuts, with over 1000 people made redundant in the district.

'Solid Energy went from employing more than 1000 people at Stockton down to around the 250 mark. The price of coal went from over $300 to $74. On top of that, we've seen the dairy price decrease, Oceana goldmine close in Reefton and Holcim's Westport cement plant closing with the loss of 105 jobs in June.'

People struggled and families suffered, he said. He then came up with the idea of a 'Move to Westport' campaign to get real estate moving again.

'There were about 23 sales, people aged between 60 and 70 from Australia, Auckland, predominantly Nelson, Blenheim Canterbury.

'They could sell their house for $500,000 and buy equivalent for $300,000. That gave them equity to go and visit their grandchildren in Australia and do other activities.

'We got a very active group of people who are doing community volunteer work and love it here,' Howard said.

Westport's population has not declined as much as expected as new people moved in, some being lower socio-economic groups attracted to lower housing costs.

The Buller Community Profile, compiled by Community Public Health and released in June, found Buller was struggling to cope with an influx of high needs people. It said the newcomers were pushing some social services to breaking point.

'You can not deny there's an underbelly, an area of the community that is not in a good space. Drug, alcohol, mental health and it's making sure we have the right support services for them. We're not hugely different from other rural area but we've been through a real change as a community.'

Howard was passionate about keeping Westport's strong community spirit alive.

'One way to keep community spirit when you're going through tough times is about getting art music and culture into your community. It's amazing how that can get you through. Getting people to participate in events that take away the negativity,' he said.

Garry Howard says Buller's economy needs to diversify.

The council promoted competitions like painting fridges and planes, and building bike stands, and helped fund a sculpture symposium.

Buller's $300,0000 Buller Economic Stimulus Fund was matched by the Government and had created 13 new jobs so far.

He said the council's economic development officer, John Hill, had been doing good work on a proposal for a waste-to-energy plant which would create 60 jobs.

Hill and Howard, along with representatives from Waste Energy West Coast Ltd, went to England to visit existing waste-to-energy plants in September.

'Our trip to England was to try and have a look not only the technical side but what are the social and environmental impacts of a waste-to-energy plant,' Howard said.

'We were very impressed. This is all very possible. Ferrybridge just outside Leeds was a real eye opener. It looks just like a dairy factory. It's really good environmentally.'

The key to making the plant economically viable would be to secure waste.

'You're looking at hundreds of millions of dollars to establish a plant. Funding won't be an issue if we've got enough waste. It's not the council that is going to do this. Our role is to facilitate as much as we can but we are very keen on the project.'

Another idea Howard has is to create a hotel in the three silos left on the Westport wharf, which are currently for sale by Holcim Cement.

'The silo hotel is a personal passion of mine. I've had a look at silo conversion around the world online and had a look at the ones at Bunbury, which are the same dimensions as the ones we have. It's not something council would do, but it's something we would like to put on a plate and say here's an opportunity.'

The tourism industry would be a key driver in the district's recovery, he said.

'It has filled a lot of holes in our bed nights that the corporates left. We haven't had the growth that Hokitika and the glaciers have had because we had the loss to start with.

'People think of Westport as turning off at the crossroads and there is far more traffic on the Arthur;s and the Haast [passes] than the Lewis Pass. To put it bluntly we are a bit in the backwash of the tourist expansion.'

He believed better marketing of what the northern West Coast had to offer was needed. Key features included Punakaiki's pancake rocks, the seal colony at Cape Foulwind, the mining history at the Denniston plateau and the Karamea arches.

Howard acknowledged job cuts left a huge gap in the 20 to 55 age group, and said the district's economy needed diversification.

A venture like Epic Westport, set up by Ben and Natasha Dellaca, was a good start.

'Epic in Christchurch have 21 companies, all in the IT industry. Seven of those had CEOs that came from Westport so we specifically targeted those people and said 'time to come back home boys and girls'.

'We've now got people there working on software for Sony and Disney. We've got people producing 3D printers. It's the small businesses that bring diversification and bring back population between 25 and 45.

'We've got to tell the story that there's IT with lifestyle and it's right here in a great place to live. It's about the scenery and the environment we live in. There's no traffic jams, or parking meters, we've only got one traffic light in the Buller Gorge.'

Howard's future doesn't rest on staying on as Buller's mayor.

'I have got a set time frame. Throughout life I've changed every eight to 10 years. We'll work through this term and see where things are going. I'm working through a succession plan. I've got ambitions for what else I might do.

'I see development opportunities within the community. I would like to do more volunteer work, not only here but in other countries, South America is a passion of mine. It doesn't matter if I'm digging holes or what I'm doing. Why not give back?'