A new chapter for Waihī Beach library
The new Waihi Beach library and council service centre will be built in front of the community centre and current library on Beach Road.
It will be connected to the community centre through a covered walkway and the centre’s façade would be upgraded to visually link the buildings.
Western Bay of Plenty District councillors voted on the site at the Performance and Monitoring Committee on Thursday 4th August.
The Beach Road site was chosen over the other shortlisted option of Te Mata Reserve on Wilson Road. This was supported by Council staff, the architects and had majority support from the community.
The Beach Road site would be $6.8 million for the new build and community centre upgrade. Mayor Garry Webber said it was great the library would be built after being talked about for 12 years. But he was concerned people would object to the cost because the original figure talked about was $2.5 million.
“That was a placeholder from a long way back and it bears no resemblance to what this is.” he said.
“This is a real step up to what we were talking about 12 years ago.”
Waihī Beach Community Board chairperson Ross Goudie said the board was “very enthusiastic” about the site and always had been.
“We are very willing to work further with whoever, however, to make this the best little library in the Western Bay,” he said.
Councillor Anne Henry said it was “fabulous” the site had been chosen because it was right next to the Waihī Beach School and initially it wasn’t considered as an option.
The former teacher at Waihī Beach School said often schools’ libraries were re-purposed as classrooms as a shortterm solution to cope with roll growth.
“It’s really vital that our community libraries do play a part in schools and education,” said Henry.
In a statement after the meeting, deputy chief executive Gary Allis said the site checked several boxes for the community and allowed council to run a shared operating model.
“Modern libraries offer the community so much more than a service for borrowing books,” he said. “They’ve become a centre for the entire community to meet, to connect, to learn, to get inspired and to share knowledge and experience.
“The current library only has room for one public computer and it’s just not big enough to meet the community’s needs.”
The library would now proceed to detailed design and the timing would be considered through the 2023-24 annual plan.
It’s expected construction would be brought forward from the original long term plan proposal of 2028.