A report on the future of the Cromwell Museum sparked a discussion at this week's Cromwell Community Board meeting about whether the board had any say in the planned relocation of the town's information centre.
The two subjects are connected as the museum shares a building with the Cromwell visitor information centre and the town library in the mall.
The Central Otago District Council has decided a new "i-Site" (visitor information centre) should be built as a stand-alone facility, on Murray Tce, but postponed the $738,000 project until July next year at the earliest.
The district council made the decision on a new i-Site as such facilities are seen as district-led initiatives.
Council chief executive Phil Melhopt told the board on Monday several other matters - "speed bumps along the way" - had to be resolved before the project could proceed.
These included details about how the new i-Site would link with the mall, what would happen to the museum, and a decision on the future of the Lode Lane toilets next to the mall.
The new i-Site building will contain public toilets.
Board chairman Neil Gillespie said all those issues were interrelated, as were the plans for the revamp of the town mall.
In response to questions from new board members Nigel McKinlay and Glen Christiansen about the board's role in the i-Site decision, he said the board had not been asked for its views.
"The first chance we've had as a board to consider anything to do with the information centre relocation was the report we received about the future of the museum."
The board could not control the actions of the district council: "if they choose to shift it [the i-Site], we can make our dissatisfaction known, but that's all we can do."
The Cromwell ward had three votes out of 11 on the district council, he said.
District visitor information centre manager Ingrid Temple presented a report with costs of five different options for the future of the museum, all based on it remaining in the same location.
They ranged from of $28,000 through to $109,000.
They covered it the possibility of the museum expanding into the current i-Site space, or renting out that space.
Different levels of staffing were also proposed.
One option was for a partnership with another group.
Mrs Temple had called for expressions of interest along those lines but received only one - "an expression of interest about expressing interest" - by the closing date.
The board resolved to continue exploring that option, to get more information about making the museum a fully-staffed facility, and to seek the advice of an expert on the options for running a museum facility.
Mr McKinlay said the museum was located in a critical part of the mall and he wanted a decision on its future to be made in the context of a bigger plan, with consideration given to upgrading the facility.
