BATHURST'S new mayor is already getting to work on building relationships between the council and members of the community.
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Mayor Ian North told the Western Advocate that he wanted to work with local businessman Peter Rogers, who has been publicly campaigning to improve the promotion of Bathurst.
"I think the ideas Peter Rogers has got are good and I think council can look at incorporating those within how we are promoting our city," Cr North said.
Just a few days after becoming mayor, he has already reached out to Mr Rogers to arrange a time to meet.
Mr Rogers said he was looking forward to sitting down with him, welcoming the opportunity to work with council to promote Bathurst.
"It's been a long, hard road with some of my promotions. We still haven't got a sign for Bathurst up on the Mount at this stage, after about 14 months of trying to," he said.
"Hopefully we are going to sit down. I'm waiting just for an appointment, but they do want to get me in and they're going to go through what we've got proposed."
He has been working hard in the background to achieve some things on his own, including producing signs promoting Bathurst in empty shop windows and printing brochures about the region's attractions.
The brochures have been a huge success.
Mr Rogers said businesses were regularly contacting him to get the brochures and as a result he is on the verge of doing a second print run.
"The businesses are really complimentary and thanking me everywhere I go. People are ringing me for my brochures, like just the other day the NRMA caravan park, that's the third time they've rung me [for more brochures]," he said.
"And I'm getting service stations ringing me and I'm up to three or four lots with them. I think that's got to be doing good, because people couldn't be taking that many brochures and just throwing them in the bin, so hopefully it is working.
"The businesses are certainly on side, because they know that I'm doing the work for them."
In addition to having the support of Cr North, Mr Rogers said other councillors have approached him to say they want to work with him.
He is hoping "the bureaucrats" at council will be open to his ideas, too, and said it was important for council to consult with people like himself who can offer up advice based on their experience.
"In Bathurst, we don't have any of those committees anymore ... we've got all that knowledge that no one talks to. It's a disconnect," Mr Rogers said.
"Bring back some of the committees with people who have got a bit of experience, a bit of history about the town."
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