Chris Pavlovich reflects on his 12 years at the Shire of Plantagenet and the growing community

After 12 years working with the Shire of Plantagenet, Shire president Chris Pavlovich is stepping away from local politics. “We have so many volunteers and so many organisations that are helping themselves, and all we need to do is listen to our community and give them the opportunity to make this place even better for future generations,” he said. In the past five years, Mr Pavlovich said he had seen the community grow by 10 per cent. “We were suffering from people that were leaving the agricultural area as farmers are getting bigger and forestry was taking over,” he said. “We struggled to maintain our population base with obviously residential development offsetting the regional decline. “So what council did in my term is we made a conscious effort to review all our built infrastructure, so that’s sporting facilities, swimming pools, hall, community centres, parks, gardens and playgrounds and the like. “Then we spent a fair bit of time to heal what the community ambience.” During his time the council also reassessed what people would want to do when they visited Mt Barker, taking steps to make the area more attractive by sprucing up streetscapes and lighting up old buildings. “It’s been a little bit challenging with a lot of CEO changes over the last few years, but fortunately council has been able to work together collectively with staff to keep our projects on track and keep delivering for our community,” he said. “And that’s meant a lot of work and a lot of cooperation from everybody. “We’re really proud that we’ve been able to pull it together and keep the wheels turning.”