Fifty-six residents attended a meeting this week to gauge support for the rebuild and asked for the matter to be "treated with urgency" by the Cromwell Community Board. The community relied heavily on the facility, and it was used daily by community groups, hall committee member Sue McNamara said.
The Cromwell Community Board has already agreed to rebuild the hall and the next stage of proceedings will be to consider cost estimates for the work, board chairman Neil Gillespie said.
The hall is owned by the Central Otago District Council and it was closed earlier this month after an engineer's report, done because of plans to extend the facility, revealed there was a "very high risk of complete structural failure of all stone walls" during a moderate earthquake.
The front parapets over the entrance were also likely to break and there was an unacceptable risk of multiple death or serious injury, the engineer's report said.
"The meeting this week was a chance for the community to raise any questions it had and for us to get feedback," Mr Gillespie said.
"There were some questions about whether we'd been too hasty in saying the building would need to be demolished, but we explained there was no other option available to us, really. It's a matter of risks and liability."
The intention was for the design of the new building to be a replica of the old one, with the planned addition included.
"We're conscious of the heritage values of the existing building and the new one will be in keeping with that." He did not want to speculate on the cost of the new hall or how it would be funded.
"First we have to get a design finalised and then look at estimates. At this stage we don't know what the funding requirement is."
Mrs McNamara said it was a positive meeting and residents understood there was no other choice but to demolish and rebuild the hall.
"There was overwhelming support at the meeting for the rebuild and we'll do everything we can to facilitate and support the planning, funding and building, with the aim of having it reopened by August 2012," she said.
