Town Hall
It was a great turnout at the Town Hall for the Public Meeting to discuss the way forward with the Hall given the facts that it is an earthquake prone building. There are people on fixed incomes concerned about the effect any spend would have on their rates and a fair enough question – it was the question and answer that everyone wants to know!
Dr Dowds stated that we cannot give a figure at this stage and that it belongs to all the South Wairarapa District residents and that as with the Greytown Town Centre the whole district will contribute. Mayor Staples emphasised that fundraising and Council taking out a loan would be in the mix as well.
It is obvious that people do care about the building and now understand that Council must upgrade and comply with regulations or pull the building down by 2021. It will be much clearer when residents through the Consultation process in due time, make submissions to Council with their preferences and a decision can be made to go forward.
The Town Hall Committee were gratified to see the interest from everyone. Civil Defence – Emergency management in South Wairarapa is looking for volunteers to assist in emergencies – there is an Application form you can download from www.swdc.govt.nz or simply call 3069611 and ask for Chris Ferguson or contact any of your Councillors.
Library – you may have been handed a survey questionnaire recently. We are asking library users if they would like to access this service in the weekends and what hours would suit them. All three South Wairarapa Libraries are completing this survey and as a trial the libraries are going to open over 4 Saturdays in January from 10 – 5pm. Visitors will find this useful to access computers too over the holidays.
Enjoy the Christmas Parade and best wishes for the festive season.
Julie Riddell
A No Brainer (my view)
What great turn out to the public meeting discussing the strengthening of the Town Hall (TH) and other options? The meeting was to inform and gather some of the community’s views. If you have questions, suggestions, a desire to assist either give me one of the TH Committee a ring or contact the Mayor.
The time will come when decisions will be required to move forward.
Maltbys (Professional Quantity Surveyors) were employed to give Rough Order of Cost Estimate for the various options. The costs include various contingencies, professional services and consent fees they are not just picked from the sky, there is methodology but they are still estimates.
The greatest asset of the TH is the auditorium (the main hall) as pointed out by Architects David Low and David Kernohan who assisted with the presentation. The space, volume and acoustics will be difficult to replicate in a new building and will cost a lot more than the strengthening option. The main structure of the hall is in reasonably good condition.
The recommended strengthening work exceeds both the current requirement of 33% and the mooted 60% so that it will hopefully be secure for another 100 years, no guarantee but there wouldn’t be with a new building either. Michelle Grant did a great job at presenting the engineering facts to the meeting.
My opinion is to go with the strengthening. While I have some emotional attachment to the Town Hall my belief is based on the facts as they have been presented to me in various reports and speaking to engineers and architects.
Unfortunately there are people on lower/fixed incomes who are concerned about the impact on their rates. Affordability is a concern, the Council is financially sound, and not having much debt, there is however considerable capital infrastructure planned. Halls do not come cheap and like Swimming Pools, Libraries and Parks & Reserves are underutilised and costly.
So if the Town Hall is important to our community we will need to do our share to keep this valuable asset and with Council will need to explore all funding options. If the strengthening isn’t the preferred option Council will required to either demolish parts or all of the TH. When the consideration of the preferred option is to be undertaken.
Martinborough is increasingly becoming a destination, a place where events are held, we seem to be able to pull the crowds. This is not a coincidence, but the reward of hard work and vision of various groups of enthusiastic people in our community; people have made considerable investment in the developing the towns hospitality facilities, restaurants, accommodation, retail etc.
The Town Hall is a great small concert venue that has potential to greatly assist the development of our town. For example Cressy’s Jazz Festival, Mats productions, Ukulele concert as well as church fairs, weddings, fund raising events and Public Meetings to name a few.
The town has had a fortunate journey we need to consider the future as our forefathers did when they built the Town Hall almost 100 years ago!
Whether you have similar views or not I am very interest in hearing from you.
Max Stevens.
