That is the message from Waitaki Community Recreation Centre manager Diane Talanoa.
With the construction of the new Network Waitaki Event Centre scheduled to begin next month, questions arose around the need for the rec centre.
"Obviously, with the new event centre, things will change. But we’re still really confident that the rec centre still has a really important niche in the community," Ms Talanoa said.
"There are people, for example, who come along and do group fitness classes and those sorts of things. That’s not going on offer out at the new event centre.
"This is a community centre for the community."
The rec centre is home to the North Otago section of the New Zealand Alpine Club and they have an expansive rock climbing wall.
Waitaki Girls’ High School also uses the facilities for physical education classes and the centre hosts smallbore rifle shooting events as well.
Discussions about how the two centres would co-exist "are still to be had", she said.
"We need to be looking at whether we operate the same, whether we reinvent ourselves differently and how we work alongside the event centre, because we see it as being a complementary thing."
The rec centre is owned and run by the Waitaki Community Recreation Centre Trust and has been open since 1987.
To "future proof" the facility, the trust received $80,000 from the Otago Community Trust.
That would go towards recladding the exterior of the building, Ms Talanoa said.
"We had been talking to them for a while and we are undertaking a major project, so they have helped us kick-start it. That’s about 20% of the funding we need."
The Waitaki District Council has also contributed an annual grant to the trust every year since 1988.
This year $89,880 was agreed to in the annual plan.
Council chief financial officer Amanda Nicholls said the intention was that the grant would continue.
