Te Manawa’s plans proceed
Te Manawa has been given up to three months and $40,000 from the Palmerston North City Council to turn its vision for a new facility into a business plan.
The museum of art, science and history launched its proposal to rebuild, rather than just make the buildings earthquake-safe on August 14. City councillors gave support for more planning to be done.
On Monday, the council voted to make a contribution to the $65,000 cost of developing a master plan and business case.
The most expensive Te Manawa 2025 option has been estimated at $45 million to $58m, with ratepayers contributing $15m to $17m.
A second option would be a mixture of new buildings and renovating some existing buildings at a cost of $30m to $45m.
Cr Vaughan Dennison said after ‘‘a cool-down period’’ he thought it was more realistic to focus on the second option.
When the council reviewed its Long Term Plan in 2018, it would face some expensive demands, including wastewater treatment improvements, investment the in Central Energy Trust Arena, building new social housing and implementing the central city streetscape plans.
‘‘I think it becomes unrealistic to fit all these projects into the plan,’’ he said.
But Cr Rachel Bowen said rather than ‘‘cooling down’’, she had become even more enthusiastic about the possibilities the plan could deliver.
Cr Karen Naylor said Te Manawa’s plans were exciting, but the council would need information on all four options before making a choice.
The cheaper plans were to simply do the earthquakestrengthening for about $3.3m, or enhance the existing buildings.
Cr Lorna Johnson said she did not want councillors to get ‘‘cold feet’’ after earlier encouraging Te Manawa to look at the top-of-therange proposals.
General manager for libraries and community services Debbie Duncan said the planning work was running in parallel with a feasibility study into creating a military history exhibition facility in the city.
‘‘At some point these two pieces of work will need to come together,’’ she said.