Business (Almost) as Usual While Building Strengthened
Services at the South Taranaki District Council will be disrupted for approximately 4-6 months while the main Administration Building in Hāwera is earthquake strengthened, says Council chief executive Fiona Aitken.
Ms Aitken says from 3 December the Administration Building on Albion Street will be closed and the staff relocated to other facilities while the strengthening work is done.
Te Ramanui o Ruapūtahanga, the District’s new Library, isite Visitor Information Centre and gallery on the corner of High and Regent Streets will be the temporary location for all Council related enquiries.
“All the same services will be available as before; however, we will need to do some things just a little differently,” says Ms Aitken. “When customers need to see a staff member, we’ll need to use video conferencing technology (Teams) or arrange for appointments to be made, because the staff will be in several different locations,” she says.
While there will be a degree of disruption for the public and staff, Ms Aitken says it’s nothing they can’t accommodate.
“Since COVID-19 we’ve learnt to be very flexible with how we do things and, while shifting out of the main building is not ideal, it means we can get the strengthening work done more quickly.”
Ms Aitken says the strengthening work is needed because the Hāwera Administration building is the District’s Civil Defence emergency operations centre and needs to meet higher structural requirements than other buildings.
“We need to make sure that in the event of a major disaster we are able to use this building as our base of operations as well as continue to deliver our business-as-usual activities to our communities.”
From 3 December go to Te Ramanui o Ruapūtahanga on the corner of High and Regent Streets for all Council related matters or ring 278 0555 or 0800 111 323 to set up a meeting.
