Born and bred in Leeton, Mr Odewahn wants to create solutions and take community feedback seriously, which he believes has fallen on deaf ears in recent years.

"I have seen over the past few years public consultation not being taken seriously not by councillors but by council itself, I have seen not one part of any consultation taken to bat genuinely," Mr Odewahn said.

"That's what is prompting me to run for local government this year, I thought that it would be good to improve the openness of council, and the relationship with what the community wants to see happen as ratepayers in the future."

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Mr Odewahn says he is a believer in the core issues for ratepayers rather than unnecessary luxuries and that Councils priority should be ensuring it is profitable and fit for the future.

"Council is spending money on things that I feel are not priorities," Mr Odewahn said.

"This is a very critical time as in the current balances we actually fell behind because of a lack of due diligence in the rehabilitation of the Leeton Landfill and Recycling Centre which we had to pay for this year.

"It made the figures look good for nine years but is a ten problem that we are paying for this year, things like this need to be scrutinished.

"We are lucky enough to be a financially viable shire so we need to maintain that viability by not over extending ourselves into luxuries that we need to maintain into the future."

Mr Odewahn also said he was alarmed to read that Leeton was number two for animal attacks reported in the entire state of NSW and wanted to address this by improving ranger services.

"For a small town to be number two in the entire state is extremely concerning," Mr Odewahn said.

"We need to look at whether we have adequate coverage of ranger services which currently cover not just animal control but the environment, compliance and more."

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Improvement of health services on offer in Leeton is also important to Mr Odewahn although he does offer a unique perspective on how best to address the decline in services available at Leeton District Hospital.

"Instead of focusing on having seven doctors to staff the hospital 24/7 we need to be more realistic and look at making sure we have an adequately staffed hospital," Mr Odewahn said.

"I also want to look at solutions to broadening our ambulance services, perhaps even splitting up our paramedics from working in teams of two to working just with a paramedic and trained driver to increase coverage in the community."

"We don't people waiting in emergencies because we don't have enough ambulances, this could mean the difference between life and death."

Improved road maintenance and design improvements, and equal maintenance and facilities available for community members to enjoy no matter where they live are also priorities for Mr Odewahn.

"Some facilities and parks are treated better than others, mowing just isn't good enough, you only need to look at the barren wasteland of waipukarau park to understand."

"We need to push for more facilities and opportunities for our youth, we have toddler parks but not much else for the next generation of kids.

"There is definently potential to restore and resurrect old facilities and land for public use."

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