Hall assessed as high quake risk
AN earthquakerelated assessment report on the Cromwell Memorial Hall says the building has an extremely high risk of being earthquake prone.
The hall, built in the 1950s, has been the topic of intense community debate since the Cromwell Community Board decided to halt a proposed refurbishment of the hall last year.
In November, the board decided to cancel the hall upgrade and explore new options.
In December, it approved spending $45,000 for an earthquake assessment report, voting against spending $1 million to carry out deferred maintenance.
It was decided that if the report came back to the board saying it was above the legal requirement of 34% new building standard (NBS), the board would approve spending $170,000 to prepare design and specifications for building consents and tender.
If the building was assessed below 34% NBS, the community board would need to decide whether to strengthen it.
A report by Batchelar McDougall Consulting said the building was 10% to 15% of NBS, ranked as grade E, in which the earthquake risk could be extremely high.
It said structural works could be carried out to raise the NBS capacity.
In 2013, the hall had been assessed at 38% of NBS.
A report to the Central Otago District Council’s audit and risk committee by property officer Tara Bates said the engineer told the council the new assessment was more detailed than in 2013.
The report will be discussed today by the council’s audit and risk committee at a public meeting, where it will discuss if it wishes to make recommendations on the hall and other councilowned earthquakeprone buildings.