Green: Move is only option
Taupo District Council chief executive Gareth Green says even if councillors decide to build a new council building on a new property, council staff will need to vacate their Lake Terrace office building.
Councillors are considering options for the aged building. Options include; demolishing it and rebuilding on the same site, building a fit-for-purpose building elsewhere, or repairing the building’s exposed asbestos panels and undertaking earthquake strengthening work.
Councillors will hear public submissions on the issue on Thursday at the Lake Terrace office from 9.30am.
Councillors will then make the decision on June 15.
Green said if the council decides to rebuild elsewhere, council staff would not remain in the building.
‘‘If the decision is made to build somewhere else, then the decision would be made to sell that Lake Terrace site,’’ Green said.
‘‘There’s some work we could do to prepare that site for sale so that we’d get the best price for the land – that would be to demolish the building.
If councillors decide to sell the site rather than rebuild or repair it, the site can be put on the market much sooner if staff are already moved out, he said.
Green said that if councillors decide to build elsewhere, the decision to sell the site can be made at the same time.
Alternatively, if councillors decide to repair the Lake Terrace building’s asbestos issue, work to address the other issues facing the building would be done at the same time, Green said.
‘‘It could be compared to sealing a road, then digging it up next week put in a stormwater pipe. You don’t do that, you look at what is required before you start the programme,’’ he said.
‘‘In this case, we’ve got to deal with asbestos at some stage, we’ve got to deal with earthquake risk at some stage, and we’ve got to deal with the cabling and ducting at some stage.’’
‘‘Yes, you can do it with staff in there, but it’s a whole lot faster and easier to do it with the staff gone,’’ Green said.
‘‘From a health and safety perspective, there’s much less risk if the staff are not there,’’ Green said.
‘‘We’ve taken advice and are acting in accordance with that advice.’’
* Next council meeting: June 7 at 72 Lake Terrace, starts 9.30am