The hall is owned by the Central Otago District Council, and the Bannockburn Community Centre Management Committee managed the facility as well as the nearby community-owned church. The committee has been finalising plans for a new hall, estimated to cost about $1.3 million. At its meeting yesterday
the board considered a request from the committee for up to $20,000 for a feasibility study. When it applied for funding for the new hall from various trusts and agencies, it needed to include the study, committee chairwoman Jan Hawkins said.
The figure was made up of $4750 and a further $15,250 to employ structural, services and other design engineers.
Council property and facilities manager Mike Kerr said the level of design detail needed for the feasibility study was ''questionable'' as the additional $15,000 seemed more about certainty-of-construction-cost estimates, whereas a feasibility study was usually about confirming a demand for a proposed facility and its future viability or affordability.
He recommended the board provide $4750 and said the board had spent $52,7738 on the project so far ''with no actual development on site or confirmation of funding of any substance from other funders''.
The project had changed from an extension to the hall, before it was discovered to be earthquake-prone, to rebuilding, to a replica replacement and finally to rebuilding using a modern design, the latter being because of a change of direction by the committee.
All the resulting costs so far had been funded by the board, he said. Mrs Hawkins said more than half of what had been spent related to the upgrade plans for the hall, before it was ''red-stickered''.
The community had fundraising plans but the committee needed to have the study completed before it approached potential major funders. Central Otago Mayor Tony Lepper suggested the committee ask potential funders of the project to contribute to the feasibility study.
Board chairman Neil Gillespie said it made sense for any organisation offering a major grant, including the board, to seek a feasibility studyThe board had already agreed to provide a grant of $204,000 for the hall, giving half in the 2014-15 financial year and the rest the following year. It was originally going to give the first grant in the 2013-14 year but postponed it.
Mr Gillespie suggested the committee make a submission on this year's annual plan if it wanted those amounts sooner.
