Veteran broadcaster, author and longtime Waitaki district councillor Jim Hopkins has died, aged 79. <\/p>\n
The Waitaki District Council announced Hopkins’ death on Monday evening, saying the long-serving elected member had died earlier that morning.<\/p>\n
Waitaki mayor Mel Tavendale described Hopkins as a passionate advocate for the district whose impact would be felt for years to come.<\/p>\n
“He was a fierce advocate for the people of Waitaki, both within and beyond council, and he scrutinised every detail. He kept us all honest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
“The council chamber will not be the same without him, his passionate arguments, attention to detail and incredible wit.<\/p>\n
“Jim believed in democracy and he believed in Waitaki. I can only say again how deeply Jim will be missed as a councillor and as a friend.” <\/p>\n
Hopkins was widely known across New Zealand for his work in radio and television. <\/p>\n
He had represented the Oamaru Ward since 2007 and served as Waitaki’s deputy mayor from 2010 to 2013. <\/p>\n
Before moving to Waitaki, he also served four terms as a councillor on the Banks Peninsula Council.<\/p>\n
Chief executive Alex Parmley said Hopkins bought a “very considered approach” to local government, alongside a sharp sense of humour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI extend my condolences to his family and friends. We are working with Jim\u2019s family to provide a fitting farewell for a deeply community-minded man whose commitment is something we can all look up to,” Parmley said. <\/p>\n
The council said its thoughts were with Hopkins’ friends, family and the wider Waitaki community. <\/p>\n
A condolences book would be available at the Waitaki District Council offices for people to sign, while the council flag would be flown at half-mast in his honour.<\/p>\n
Details of a memorial service were expected to be announced in the coming days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran broadcaster, author and longtime Waitaki district councillor Jim Hopkins has died, aged 79. The Waitaki District Council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1080,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-546203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-dunedin-otago","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}