Mayor's speech at blessing of new community hub site
It is very significant to the Grey District to be embarking on this journey of building our new library, community hub and retail spaces. It is a now or never scenario for the Grey District Council and it would not be possible to be constructing this legacy project without our partners DWC and the Kānoa funding received from the government.
The Greymouth CBD has long had its issues with boom and bust economic times, internet retail and earthquake prone buildings, business owners have struggled to strengthen their buildings or have the funds to demolish. Unfortunately, we have lost many historic buildings that made up the character of our CBD but these have had to go.
We have seen in recent years the worst buildings start to be demolished and new developments starting to be built and a new future emerging. With the new Pounamu Pathways - a project developed by Te Rūnanga Ngāti Waewae and Makaawhio - combined with funding support from Minister Jones' original PGF and commitment from Māwhera with new developments in the planning, it is the start of a new era of hope for our town.
We are also pleased to say that we have the same architects, project management and local construction teams that brought the Pounamu Pathway in on time and budget. These teams have proven themselves to be highly capable and already the project indications are it is running within budget and on schedule. No pressure, but we have great expectations! It was important to us all to have as much of a local aspect to this development as possible.
Our new library-come-community hub will not be like libraries of the past. It will still have the reading materials of the past but it will also have meeting spaces, play areas, new technologies and a lot more for all ages of the community. We need to future-proof our district to have modern facilities and community meeting places to make it an attractive place to live and play, and again it is a 'now or never' situation with the funding provided. We have a lot of interest in the bottom story tenancies to fill the space which was one of our main worries, and it's now a major positive with the development also triggering interest in surrounding development opportunities that we hope will come to fruition.
It is exciting times for the region, and we have had many Ministers coming through the region and hearing our stories and challenges. With the new announcements around mineral extraction and industry from the Honorable Minister Jones and regional development opportunities, we have great hope and expectation for the future.
We thank you Minister Jones for your announcements and also your previous commitments with the PGF that have assisted with our wonderful achievements at the port, new bridging infrastructure, and the Pounamu Pathways. Funding assistance with our new community hub development brings us here today. Thank you for hearing and seeing us in the regions - finally we are having a common sense approach. We don’t want a hand out but we do deserve a hand up, and the future is looking exciting.
I would like to thank the Crown for the Kānoa and the Better off Funding, Development West Coast, our local iwi and also the Grey District Councillors for the confidence shown in committing to this project in the face of some challenging circumstances.
