Newly boarded-up windows and windows with brick-sized holes
in them are giving one of Wanaka's prime pieces of real
estate - the former Wanaka Primary School - an increas-ingly
bedraggled look.
Wanaka police are speaking to three 12-year-old and
13-year-old boys about how 24 windows in several of the
former buildings came to be broken by bricks and stones on
Saturday afternoon.
Two buildings were also entered but nothing was taken.
The old school, in Tenby St, has been largely vacant for two
years since staff and 430 pupils moved to a new site.
Neighbours spoken to by the Otago Daily Times
yesterday were not overly surprised at the vandalism, one
couple saying they had called the security firm looking after
the site several times over the past two years.
Wanaka Protective Services managing director Colin Armstrong
said the incident was the third he had been alerted to in the
past two years. On one previous occasion he had found a group
had broken in through a window and were smoking cannabis in
one of the rooms.
Security problems at the former school had increased since
night patrols were discontinued and more reliance was placed
on security alarms, he said.
A neighbour, Owen Wright, said he was looking forward to the
site being redeveloped, although the price seemed too high.
The property was last month reduced in price by $35,000, to
$3.55 million plus GST. The July 1 quotable value was $2.475
million including GST.
mark.price@odt.co.nz
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