Motueka’s museum staff are looking forward to putting away their mops and buckets after the council passed a motion earlier this month to replace the building’s leak-prone roof.
Chris Sutton, who is the chair of the Motueka Museum Trust Board, says that the board is appreciative of the allocation of $120,000 which will be used to “finally address the problem”.
In 2014, the Tasman District Council commissioned a report from an independent building inspector, which detailed the condition of the roof, spouting and flashings, and Chris says that a replacement roof has been a long time coming.
“The staff and trust board have been dealing with leaks for far too long,” she says.
“Every time there is heavy rain, the TDC staff have to be called out to address a new leak or to patch up an existing leak.”
She says that, in the interim, the museum staff have to scramble to protect artefacts, displays or exhibitions.
“It is a fiscally responsible decision to replace the roof as the patch-ups are just that.
“We are hoping the leaks will no longer be an issue and the staff can safely put the buckets and mops away. One of our main responsibilities as a museum is to save artefacts for the next generation, and therefore they must be treated, stored and protected correctly.”
The motion was passed at the TDC’s meeting on 1 August, with the work to be completed this year. The councillors agreed that the roof should be fully replaced, rather than the original 80 per cent which had been mooted. The funding is to come from the TDC’s Museum Operational Budgets from 2023/2024 and 2024/2025.
The council minutes note that “the new roof cladding would reduce the pressure on future maintenance and renewal funding”.
The museum has a long history with roof leaks. In a copy of The Colonist dated May 1914, Chris discovered that the Nelson Education Board reported that the chief inspector “had been drawn to several bad leaks in the new school at Motueka”.
The “new school” replaced a wooden structure, which had been built in 1866. The new brick building was later to become utilised as the Motueka Museum, opening its doors to the public in 1987.
