As the owner of a local engine rebuilding service, Chris Ingram regularly comes into contact with residents from each Wagga suburb and surrounding town.
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Through these conversations with people from all walks of life, he feels as though he has a firm grip on the most prevalent issues across the community.
Mr Ingram is one of the six candidates on the Clean Out Council ticket, led by Wagga Boat Club commodore Mick Henderson.
Born in Wagga, the 38-year-old has lived in the city his whole life and took over his family business Ingrams Automotive in 2013 after working for a few years as a spray painter in a local auto shop.
The proud husband and father of two is running in the local government election to help create a better Wagga for his children to grow up in and because he believes he can be a voice for the community.
"I've got two little kids and a third due in January and I want them to see there is prosperity for this city in the future because at the moment it feels like we're just sitting here doing nothing," Mr Ingram said.
"You see other small communities where people are always moving and their kids are leaving to Sydney or Melbourne because there's actually things to do there.
"We're the biggest inland city in NSW and I want my kids to choose to stay here and have pride in being from Wagga."
The engine reconditioner said the key to making Wagga more appealing to young people is to create more things for them to do on the weekends and during holidays.
"We travel out of town for Christmas every year and go to Canberra or Lake Talbot just so they can go play in splash parks and do things because there's nothing here for them to do," he said.
"We've got to listen to the young people and not just assume what they want.
"We should go out and ask them what they want to see in the city and then take that on board and apply that."
Through his work with local mechanics, Mr Ingram said he regularly hears stories about how poor the condition of Wagga's roads are and he is pushing for improvements to the general infrastructure.
He said the city's roads should be getting redone far more regularly than they currently are to respond to the growing number of cars using them.
"The turnover at the moment for a full revamp of a road is about 30 to 50 years and that needs to be looked at," Mr Ingram said.
"The population is getting bigger, the roads are getting used more and I think the timeframe of revamping needs to be lowered because of that."
Mr Ingram would also like to see speed limits changed less regularly to stop residents being unfairly punished by speed cameras.
"If we all knew the speed limit was 60km/h on a road then we'd all stick to that but when it's chopping and changing people get confused and get caught out," he said.
In the lead up to this year's election, The Daily Advertiser has profiled the candidates looking to secure a spot on Wagga City Council.
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