ELI HILL
[email protected]
Demolish the town hall, do not rebuild it, and put $5 million towards Carterton’s event centre, or gift the town hall buildings to private developers so they can build a new one.
That’s the message coming from “community-minded” Masterton ratepayer Sid Hayes who took out a full-page advertorial in Thursday’s Wairarapa Times-Age detailing what he believes are the best two options for the Masterton Town Hall.
Hayes said he did not consider a new centre to be justified and asked why we keep on duplicating facilities. Instead he proposed the three town hall buildings should be demolished and turned into a green space.
The Masterton District Council should gift or transfer $5 million to the Carterton District Council to go towards extending or reconfiguring the events centre and improving car parking which would benefit the entire Wairarapa region, he said.
His second option was to gift or transfer ownership of the three town hall buildings [aside from 30 carparks for Waiata House] to a developer who may wish to build a new town hall to own and administer.
This would save the ratepayers money for construction and ongoing costs.
“We have now been without the facility for two years, but prior to it being shut its use had diminished down to 70 days a year,” he said.
“For argument’s sake, if the council approves a new building, there will be a minimum of two years before something is decided on designed and constructed.”
Hayes said it would be four years gone without use.
“And honestly in those four years there won’t be an event lost in the region because those events will either be that large that they wouldn’t come here anyway, or they will be held at one of the other facilities around the region.
“Literally 10-15 minutes down the road we have a fairly modern facility – the Carterton Events Centre.”
Hayes said he’d taken out the advertorial as a way to be constructive, put the idea forwards, and to provoke thought from people sitting back or who have a tendency to not necessarily look at different angles.
“I consider myself a community-minded person. I’ve lived in the area most of my life and I’ve spent a number of years in a service club and so forth.
Hayes encouraged people to read the council’s 75-page report which can be found at mstn.govt.nz/council/projects/civic-centre-development
I wish they’d toppled the town hall in Martinborough instead of wasting millions on it whilst the town doesn’t even have a properly functioning water supply.
SWDC are utterly incompetent. Couldn’t manage their way out of a wet paper bag.