Long-awaited Rakaia Rec Centre work underway
By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
Construction has begun on a roughly $1.7 million, community-led recreation centre for Rakaia, which has been two decades in the making.
The old Rakaia Rugby Club's changing rooms and public toilets have been demolished and in its place will rise a new, modern fit-for-purpose community facility, project manager Mark Boag says.
The project has been led by the Rakaia Rugby Club and a community that has been raising funds for a new facility in the Rakaia Domain for a decade.
The approximate $1.7m build will be completed around June.
“It would be built by now if it wasn’t for Covid and it taking a couple of years to sell the old clubrooms,” Boag said.
Building consent was granted in December, allowing local builder Ross Moore to start the project in early January.
“Getting all the consents took a bit longer than we anticipated.
“It’s going to be a four to six-month build, so looking around June.”
There had been a fleeting thought to delay construction, to avoid impacting the busy winter months in the domain, but with rising construction costs the decision was made to “just get on with it”.
The facility will not be available for use until the end of the rugby season but the focus was on getting it built, Boag said.
It’s been two decades in the making.
The rugby club started drafting up plans for new clubrooms as far back as the early 2000s, he said.
Those plans were shelved when the Rakaia Community Strategic Plan in 2009 introduced the idea of a shared sports facility in the Rakaia Domain, and the formation of Sport Rakaia.
That led to much bigger plans and the Rakaia Stadium Trust pitching to the Ashburton District Council in 2015 to back a new sports complex at the Rakaia Domain. But as the EA Networks Centre was set to open in Ashburton, the council baulked at the $1.5m funding request towards the estimated $5m proposed facility.
The rugby club then took charge again and, after Covid delayed progress, they pitched to the council at the end of 2021 to pay for the replacement public toilets in the building.
The council is funding the $351,000 replacement public toilets, a prefabricated toilet block that will be incorporated into the end of the centre, near the car park.
It then took a bit longer than hoped to finalise designs, get consent and start building, but the result will be a facility fo
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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