Storm damage delays Pongaroa fuel stop grand opening

A new fuel stop has been a twoyear passion project for a tiny northern Wairarapa town, but its grand opening has been delayed by the aftermath of July’s monster snowstorm.

Pongaroa used to have two garages that sold petrol, but they have both closed. This left townsfolk having to drive almost an hour to either Pahiatua or Dannevirke to gas up ever since.

At a town meeting in 2015, almost all of the town’s 100 residents had voted to form a group to fund and build a new petrol station for themselves.

Pongaroa Fuel Stop development committee member Mark Wheeler said the town’s hard work and passion would have paid off a week before schedule.

But they were still waiting to get the power hooked up at the station, as Powerco recovered from the $2 million of damage to its network after the huge storm last month.

‘‘[Powerco’s] No 1 priority, naturally, is fixing the damage to their network... [but] we expect it to be up and running within three weeks.’’

Over the past two years, the seven-person Fuel Stop committee put together a business plan, formed a partnership with Allied Petroleum, and fundraised for the two-pump fuel stop.

The project had been expected to cost just over $600,000.

The committee raised about $245,000 of that and Tararua District Council contributed $60,000.

Wheeler said the final cost had run over because of a few unexpected extras and the committee’s treasurer would discuss further community fundraising at a meeting on Tuesday night.

One such unexpected cost was the need to dig out an old septic tank, surrounded by bricks from the town’s old brick factory.

Wheeler said it seemed to be the remains of a turn-of-the-20th century boarding house for travellers and factory workers.

Plates, bikes and other small artefacts from that era were found in the same layer and were added to a display on the town’s history.

Pongaroa man Wright Broughton, who owned the land the fuel stop was built on, said his parents bought the boarding house in the 1930s or 40s and turned it into a bus depot.

Wheeler said there were plans to add a mechanics’ garage and an electric-car charging unit over the next couple of years.