A community meeting is to be held to update Roxburgh citizens about what is happening with their town hall.
The historic hall and entertainment centre, which housed the Roxburgh Cinema, were razed in a fire on February 6 this year.
Central Otago district councillors held a workshop in Roxburgh last week at which they discussed progress on rebuilding the hall and decided to hold a community meeting.
In the public forum of the Teviot Valley Community Board’s meeting earlier that day, the board and council were challenged over the lack of advertising of the workshop, which did not appear in the agenda for the council meeting nor on the council’s website.
Council property and facilities manager Garreth Robinson told the workshop remediation of the site to date, including traffic control, removal of material and checking for asbestos, had cost $221,113.95, which was about half what was expected.
Mr Robinson paid tribute to Lake Roxburgh Contracting for their proactive work.
The building was insured for $6.4million, a clause in the policy requiring the building to be replaced "like for like", to be quantified in an independent quantity surveyor’s report.
If the report came in with a price lower than the amount insured, the council would negotiate with the insurance company, Mr Robinson said.
Teviot Valley Community Board chairman Norman Dalley, who was also on the Roxburgh Entertainment Centre committee, said the cinema group had its own insurance of about $450,000.
Councillors agreed to hold a community meeting to share the information and form a stakeholders’ committee.
Council group manager community vision Dylan Rushbrook said membership of the stakeholders’ group would be up to the community, with guidance from council staff.
One recommendation would be not to have 30 stakeholders.
Mr Robinson presented the workshop with two examples of community-driven and funded centres — the Manuherikia Community Hub at Omakau, which would begin construction by the end of the year, and the Luggate Hall, which he said was the first passive community building in the southern hemisphere.
While it cost more to build, the design meant operating and future maintenance costs did not climb like traditional buildings.
Luggate Hall cost about $5m and was about half the size of the Roxburgh one.
It would also be wise to consider existing information such as the design and engineering plans from the cinema in the Cromwell hall, which was under construction, Mr Robinson said.
Mr Dalley said constraints on a new building would come from the insurance payout, not the community or council.
A date and time for the community meeting would be advertised widely, he said.
