Church readies to reopen

The congregation at St Mary's Anglican Church in Waipukurau says a new $110,000 grant from the Lotteries Heritage and Environment Fund will be enough to complete stage one, as well as cover the lion's share of stage two of seismic strengthening work at the church.

“This means the [church] tower can now be fully strengthened,” said Alan Sutherland, spokesman for the local subcommittee tasked with strengthening the 1929-built church. It has been closed since Easter in 2014 after it was rated at just 13 per cent of the New Building Standard (NBS).

Back in June, Sutherland said that once completed, stage one of the project would strengthen the main body of the church while ensuring the tower will pose no risk to life in a severe earthquake, enough to allow it to reopen.

Work on stage one was estimated at $230,000, while stage two would cost around $100,000 and would start as funding became available, he said.

Contractor Jacob's Construction has nearly finished the work on stage one, and now thanks to the new grant, stage two funds were almost fully raised.

“This second phase will not follow on immediately after we complete stage one however, and so we intend to go ahead with our plan to reopen the church with suitable fanfare and ceremony on August 15, St Mary's Day,” Alan said.

Last Thursday and Friday, organ builder and historian Dr Ron Newton from Oamaru was on site reinstalling the church's dismantled pipe organ.

The church is also being rewired and new fire alarms and systems installed.

■ For details about the community celebration/opening ceremony on Wednesday August 15, find them on Facebook.