Ashburton’s library and civic centre making progress, on the inside, while Selwyn's new centre sparks controversy
From local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
There has been plenty of progress, just not visible progress.
Construction of the $56.75 million Ashburton Library and Civic Centre, Te Pātaka o kā Tuhituhi and Te Waharoa a Hine Paaka, is tracking along, Ashburton District Council chief executive Hamish Riach said.
“The tarpaulins and wrapping on the outside of the building is to enable work on the inside to proceed with relative protection from the weather prior to the facade of the building being attached,” Riach said.
“While this enables work to proceed, it does mean it is very hard to see building activity behind the tarpaulins.
“Once the facade is attached in the next few weeks and months, the building will look dramatically different.”
The project is still on track to be finished about mid-2023 while the budget remains under significant pressure because of “these difficult Covid times and skyrocketing construction prices".
“We are very grateful for the $20m grant given by the Government to the project as part of its Covid stimulus package.”
Ashburton’s new building will display the names gifted from Te Rūnanga o Arowhenua, Te Pātaka o kā Tuhituhi and Te Waharoa a Hine Paaka, alongside the words Ashburton Library and Civic Centre, Riach said.
Selwyn’s Te Ara Ātea, the multi-use community facility and library that opened in Rolleston in December last year, has been a topic of debate recently.
Rolleston Residents Association members want the Selwyn District Council to put the word “library” under the name of Te Ara Ātea on its signage because they feel people don’t know what the building is – despite it attracting over 100,000 visitors.
Before the building opening the Association had campaigned to have the words community centre removed from the project, as the Rolleston Community Centre, which had housed the old library, was being retained.
The Selwyn council decided to use the name Te Ara Ātea, which means the unobstructed trail to the world and beyond, rather than a by-line describing the building’s various functions.
Arowhenua gifted the names for the new Ashburton library and civic building, with the library known as Te Pātaka o kā Tuhituhi and the civic centre as Te Waharoa a Hine Paaka. Te Pātaka o kā Tuhituhi means the storehouse of written publications, while Te Waharoa a Hine Paaka derives from an ancient matai tree that once stood at Alford Forest. Known as Hine Paaka, the tree was a significant landmark to Māori travelling through the district.
*Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
Worst Xmas ever?
There's a a lot of planning that goes into Christmas day and sometimes things just don't go to plan. But it can be a good thing - a family mishap or hilarious memory that you can laugh about in Christmases to come.
Whether you burnt the dinner or were stranded at an airport...
Share your Christmas mishaps below!
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
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61.7% Summer
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36.7% Winter
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1.6% Other - I'll share below
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