After 20 years of talking about it, the Rangitikei District Council is going to treat itself to a brand new building.
Three and-a-half million dollars has been budgeted to build the new Rangitikei District Council building in Marton.
Mayor Chalky Leary said the decision to build a new council building had been
a tough one, but the council had to face reality.
The present council building, built in 1932, had deteriorated to the point where it needed at least $1 million spent on it to bring it up to standard.
"Central government has ordered the old building to comply with earthquake regulations, and to earthquake-proof it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars."
Mr Leary said nothing had been done to the building for many years. However, the new building would not be state-of-the-art.
"It will be simple, practical and functional."
Ratepayers throughout the Rangitikei would face a 2 per cent increase on their rates demand to help fund the project, he said.
Even though the money for the building was coming from two loans, $250,000 a year of the development cost would fall on ratepayers, he said.
But there would be huge savings in energy costs with a new building.
"We'll save at least $40,000 on electricity." The old building was difficult to keep cool in summer. "It's practically impossible to warm it up during the winter months."
In a civil disaster, the council building would be the hub for Civil Defence and the communications headquarters for the whole district, he said.
"Our building is just too antiquated and needs an enormous amount of work done on it, so a new building made sense."
Even if another amalgamation happened down the track, a new building won't have been a wasted exercise, he said.
"For example, if there was an amalgamation with Manawatu, we could sell the new building to someone out of town who wanted to set up their business in Marton."
Mr Leary said he realised there would be people who were not happy with the decision, but it was one that had to be made.
The development would be built piecemeal, with parts of the old building taken down then replaced some time next year.
The council hoped to hire all local building contractors for the project, he said.
