Tender accepted for new Kaiapoi library

Press, 29 August 1984, Page 23

Tender accepted for new Kaiapoi library

A $130,788 tender has been accepted by the Kaiapoi Borough Council for the building of its new library.

The site should be cleared and ready for Bremner Smith Contracts, Ltd, to begin work on September 1, the Town Clerk, Mr Rob McCabe, told the council on Monday. The building should be finished in about six months. Four tenders were considered by the architects, Lucking, Vial, and Bellerby. They recommended that Bremner Smith Contracts, the lowest tender, be accepted. Cr Neill Price was concerned that the lowest tender had been accepted when it was well below the $160,000 estimate. He was concerned the company might not be able to do the job well enough. Problems were often experienced when the lowest tender was accepted. Extra costs often made it the highest tender by the time the job had been finished, he

Mr McCabe said that the $130,000 tender did not include electrical and drainage work or furniture and fittings. Those costs would bring the total close to the estimate. All companies interested in building the library had been scrutinised by the architects before the tender documents were sent out. Only companies thought able to do the work were asked to submit a price, Mr McCabe said. Two Kaiapoi contractors were sent tender documents but neither were able to bid for the work. One realised it would not be able to do the work and the other did not get quotes back from subcontractors before tenders closed, he said. The chairman of the library committee, Cr Peggy Wade, said she was pleased with the price of the tenders put to the council. Some of the material for the library will be bought early and stored by the

council to take advantage of the price freeze and predevaluation prices. Centre A new management committee for the Kaiapoi Community Centre will be set up with the help of the council. The centre’s association was unable to elect a committee at its recent annual meeting and it went into recess. The council, as trustee, temporarily assumed responsibity for the centre. The Mayor of Kaiapoi, Mr Howard Cumberland, successfully moved that three councillors should form the new committee with four members of the previous committee. The council would assume “a greater responsibility than it had in the past” for running the centre, he said. All councillors agreed the centre should continue to run and that it would be a “disaster” if it had to close. Mr Cumberland said that Kaiapoi had too many halls and many were under-used.

That, coupled with a lack of community effort, was responsible for the threatened closing of the centre. Police A meeting with the Minister of Police, Mrs Hercus, will be sought by the council. The council’s earlier attempts to get more police stationed in the town were unsuccessful. Mr Cumberland said that he had been approached by businessmen perturbed by the high number of burglaries in Kaiapoi. They had suggested the new Government and Minister might be more sympathetic to the request for more staff. A group seeking a youth aid officer in Kaiapoi will be invited to the meeting. A letter congratulating the Christchurch police for arresting about 60 people in one day recently, on charges relating to burglaries, will be sent by the council. Mr Cumberland said the council should be willing to praise the police for their hard work.