It seems a long time since our community celebrated the Centenary of Martinborough Town Hall. What a great celebration it was too. You may recollect that the Mayor, Mrs. Adrienne Staples, announced that the Council has committed $900,000 for the Hall earthquake strengthening. This allocation has to be matched by community fundraising to pay for the refurbishment. Strengthening and refurbishment will proceed in tandem.
The Martinborough Town Hall Committee has widened its membership and thus capability to put definitive refurbishment plans in place and work towards the fundraising goal. The Committee is now known as the Martinborough Town Hall Working Group (MTHWG). Chaired by Cr Max Stevens, membership is Cr Julie Riddell, Community Board members, Pam Colenso and Adi McMaster, Malcolm Blown, Winifred Bull, Jim Clark, Ian Cresswell, David Kershaw, Ro Griffiths and Vicki Read. The MTHWG is a committee of Council. This recognises the significant financial commitment of Council to this project. To date, the MTHWG has met twice.
A brainstorming session was facilitated by Lisa Cornelissen. The aim of the brainstorming was to firm up the place of the Town Hall in the Martinborough community now and in the future. Invitations to attend this session were made via Working Group community networks. It was great that 18 people came along. The ideas with the most support will be incorporated into an architectural brief.
At its second meeting the MTHWG adopted a refurbishment and fundraising timeline. Recognising that much planning and concept work has already been done, the MTHWG is preparing a draft architectural brief. This is our priority action since it is necessary to have plans to accompany applications to major funders. Watch this space!!
