First one, then the other for library

A small Taranaki town’s library is to move once again after the building it shifted into in 2016 to escape its earthquake prone headquarters has itself been found a quake risk.

Kaponga’s library has been housed in the supper room of the nearby Kaponga War Memorial Hall since August 2016.

The books and staff were moved out of the original library building in 2016 because it was assessed as earthquake prone.

But now the South Taranaki District Council has discovered the hall for the town of 372 people also requires earthquake strengthening, at an estimated cost of between $400,000 and $500,000.

To fix the problem the library will be moved back to its original building, but not until earthquake strengthening work estimated to cost $100,000 is done.

‘‘The council is prepared to accept the earthquake risk for a hall that is used half a dozen times a year but not for a library open 20 hours a week, and because the community was very mixed about the move, we decided to strengthen the library building," STDC group manager of community services Fiona Greenhill said.

‘‘This means they will still have a supper room in the hall and we will once again have a library in the centre of the town.’’

The move to the community hall had never been universally accepted and was not without a number of teething problems.

It had been strongly opposed by a group of residents at a council meeting in February 2017, who asked for more community consultation.

At that meeting Kaponga Returned Services Association president Alistair Abbott said the library’s presence in the supper room would negatively impact the cup of tea and coffee generally offered after the town’s annual Anzac Day commemorations.

Consultation showed a 50/50 split in opinion, so in May 2017, the council decided the library would stay in the hall after the cost of altering the supper room to house the library came in at less than the cost of strengthening the library building.

It was said this would make good use of the hall, which in the 2015/16 financial year was only used six times.

However, another issue surfaced when the library’s free wireless internet attracted freedom campers, prompting complaints that they took up all the parking spaces and some were even hanging their laundry to dry on the adjacent children’s playground.

Freedom camping was banned outside the hall in December 2017 and there had been no issues at Kaponga this summer, Greenhill said.

Designs for the work to strengthen the library building were expected to be complete by the end of February, she said.