Ohakea museum to close next month

THE AIR force museum at Ohakea will close its doors for good on May 13.
Confirmation of that decision by the National Air Force Museum Trust Board was delivered by Chief of Air Force, Air Vice Marshall Graham Lintott, yesterday afternoon.
It came after a lengthy meeting involving top RNZAF officials, museum trust board members, Rangitikei, Manawatu and Palmerston North mayors and a number of other people with an interest in the Ohakea museum.
However, the outcome of the meeting was not all gloom and doom.
Instead, the parties emerged with a positive view of the future ? not for the museum but for the proposal to establish a new visitor centre at Ohakea.
At this stage there is no actual concept for such a centre, no location, no costings for its establishment and no indication of who will pay.
The only substantial assurances given yesterday were that the new facility would be close to Ohakea air base but outside its gates so would be fully accessible to the public, and the Air Force Museum trust board would provide the centre with quality displays of artefacts and memorabilia relevant to Ohakea.
Mr Lintott said the proposed new centre would not just be about Ohakea's past but would also incorporate features relating to the base as is it is and in the future.
He suggested it would ultimately be "much better than the current facility" (the museum) with a wider range of activities.
The visitor centre would be a partnership between the RNZAF, local authorities in the region and the museum trust board.
Other groups such as the Friends of the Museum and tourism organisations in the Manawatu and Rangitikei would also likely have a part to play.
The most significant decision made by those at yesterday's meeting was to form a working party involving representatives from the major interest groups.
That working party would hold its inaugural meeting on April 23.
The working party's first task would be to come up with a concept for a centre as a visitor attraction with an Air Force focus.
In stark contrast to the attitudes they displayed toward the museum trust board's closure announcement less than a month ago, civic leaders at yesterday's meeting were optimistic and positive about the new proposal.
Palmerston North Mayor Heather Tanguay said the closure decision had caused a great deal of angst in the wider community but she believed that would be relieved when people understood the plan for future.
Part of the working party's task would be to establish a communication strategy so people could be kept informed Manawatu Mayor Ian McKelvie was also optimistic.
He said yesterday's meeting had given him a much better understanding of the "very good reasons" behind the trust board's closure decision but he could now see "exciting" potential in the new proposal.