The pavilion at Kuripuni remains unfinished until someone can figure out how to get its roof tiles on. PHOTO/CAL ROBERTS
CAL ROBERTS
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Masterton’s sister city Chinese pavilion remains off-limits until someone can figure out how to piece its roof together.
The structure was put up near the Kuripuni shops with an allocated $70,000 by Masterton District Council.
The rooftop tiles were provided by Masterton’s sister city in China, Changchun.
Councillor Jonathan Hooker is a member of the New Zealand-China Friendship Society and pushed for the project to go ahead.
He was surprised when saw the tiles.
“They’ve actually turned out to be a lot more complicated — we originally thought we were getting plain roof tiles.
“But now we’ve found that they’ve got all sorts of different animals and different things on the ridgelines.
“So it’s not just a straightforward sticking on normal tiles job.”
Additional funding was a speedbump to completing the pavilion.
“We’ve got a quote which is substantially more than we were anticipating from Wellington and are exploring other options.”
MDC had someone local in mind but said they were unable to quote it because they just did not know the level of work involved.
“We’re still in a holding pattern unfortunately.”
Mr Hooker is nevertheless looking forward to seeing the finished product.
“They will obviously make it look really good but in the meantime it’s an added complication for us.”
WHY?
70k! A few farm hands could have erected something similar over a couple of weekends for a 12 pack of beer with materials donated by local building suppliers.
Allocated 70,000 and additional funding is a speed bump ? You can’t be serious what a waste of resources.
Well done MDC! Another over-budget half pie job to add to your growing list of ill managed projects
Get someone from the sister city and pay them – good PR